MP Mark Strahl grills transport minister, airlines for lack of communication over holidays

• Share on Facebook
• Share on Bluesky
• Share on X
• Copy Link

But Strahl believes, like his fellow Opposition Conservatives, that the buck stops with Transport Minister Omar Alghabra, who apparently did not reach out to Sunwing, which stranded Canadians abroad, nor the Vancouver Airport CEO after the airport shut down in December.

Federal program

Chilliwack RCMP remind public not to bring unsecured, unregistered firearms to detachment

58m ago

Suspicious fire

Abbotsford PD investigating fire at school early Monday morning as arson

1h ago

Abbotsford encampments

Homeless camps in Abbotsford taxing police resources, impacting public safety: AbbyPD spokesperson

2h ago

“While Canadians who chose to travel with Sunwing were stranded, sleeping on airport floors, and in hotel lobbies over Christmas, I’m shocked that Liberal Transport Minister Omar Alghabra did not speak with Sunwing until two weeks after the crisis began and after the affected passengers were all returned home,” Strahl said. “The Minister has also not reached out to the CEO of Vancouver International Airport during or after their shut down in mid-December.”

Sunwing, a vacation-destination airline with service to Mexico and other warmer venues, has apologized for leaving hundreds stranded in Mexico after cancelling its flights due to a winter storm that swept across parts of Canada in the lead-up to Christmas Day, and then axing trips out of Saskatchewan until early February due to “extenuating circumstances.”

However, MPs aren’t singling out Mother Nature. Instead, they’re frustrated over the lack of communication that companies had with passengers whose travel plans were upended, as well with Minister Alghabra.

“Canadians expect airlines and airports to be held accountable for their performance over the chaotic holiday travel season,” Strahl said. “However, accountability requires political leadership, and this Liberal government has been missing in action. Further testimony at [Thursday’s] emergency Transport Committee hearing confirms that the Liberal Transport Minister has not spoken with the Vancouver, Toronto or Montreal Airport authorities at any time since the holiday travel debacle in December.”

During the hearing, Strahl held Alghabra to account for saying the transportation system had been fixed when it was clear things were not OK.

“We were promised, quite frankly, by the Liberal Minister, that these matters were addressed, that he had it under control, that the broken system had been fixed,” Strahl asserted. “Clearly it has not been fixed. There are still massive problems. We’re tired of hearing Liberal ministers say that things are unacceptable when they have power to change. We want the Minister to come, to appear before us, to answer questions about how he allowed the system to stay broken, how he allowed airports to fail to serve their customers, how airlines failed to communicate with their customers.”