Mr. Chair, Honourable Members,
Air Passenger Rights is Canada’s independent nonprofit organization of volunteers, devoted to empowering travellers.
We speak for passengers whom we help daily in their struggle to enforce their rights. We take no government or business funding, and we have no business interest in the travel industry.
The right to accessible transportation is enshrined the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD), to which Canada is a signatory.
Accessible transportation is also a matter of common sense and compassion, affecting millions of our fellow Canadians. For example, one in ten Canadians (10.6%) have a mobility-related disability and one in fourteen (7.4%) a vision-related one. Disability rates increase with age. Two out of five (40.4%) Canadians aged 65 or older have at least one disability. If you do not have one yet, you may develop one sooner or later.
Yet, passengers being deprived of their mobility aids or of adequate assistance in air transportation, and having to crawl on the floor as a result, is sadly not a new problem. The advance of technology has brought to Canadians’ living rooms the footage of the all too common inhumane treatment of
passengers with disabilities.
These incidents can no longer be ignored. Canadians deserve an answer why these incidents keep happening and what needs to be done to stop them.
The culprit is the perennial problem of inadequate enforcement and inadequate legislation.
The Accessible Transportation for Persons with Disabilities Regulations (ATPDR) codifies important principles, but was not written with enforcement in mind. It does not stipulate clearly defined, predictable, and significant financial consequence for violations; nor does it offer automatic compensation to affected passengers.
While the Canadian Transportation Agency (CTA) fined Air Canada and WestJet in a few high profile cases with significant media coverage, consistent and strict enforcement is lacking. The fines in high profile cases were in the right ballpark of 50 to 100 thousand dollars; however, when the media is not paying attention, the fines are insignificant. Last week, Air Transat was fined only 11 thousand dollars for a similar violation.
These fines are just the tip of the iceberg.
No statistics are available in Canada, because unlike the US, airlines are not required to report any data on mishandled mobility aids or disability-related complaints they received.
The ATPDR itself also contains harmful loopholes.
The most significant loophole is the exclusion of international flights from the One-Person-One-Fare rule.
The One-Person-One-Fare (1P1F) rule prohibits airlines charging an additional fare if a passenger requires an additional seat for disability-related reasons. This rule is vital for providing equal access to air transportation to passengers who must be accompanied by a support person due to their disability, or who are too large to fit into a single seat, or who rely on a service dog.
In 2008, the CTA imposed the One-Person-One-Fare rule on flights within Canada as a measure to eliminate undue barriers to the mobility of passengers with disabilities. Since 2008, however, the CTA has rejected every attempt to expand the One-Person-One-Fare rule to international flights.
The CTA incorporated the One-Person-One-Fare rule in the ATPDR, but excluded international flights from this important rule.
In 2022, the CTA refused to hear a complaint seeking to expand the One-Person-One-Fare rule to international flights, citing incompatibility with Canada’s commitments to other states.
These concerns about Canada’s international commitments are devoid of any merit.
Canada is not only entitled but also has an obligation to impose requirements on airlines operating to and from its territory to implement Article 9 of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the right to accessible transportation enshrined therein.
Since the CTA is failing at protecting passengers with disabilities, it falls upon you, the lawmakers, to do so.
I ask that Parliament repeal subsection 31(2) of the ATPDR, and pass legislation that enshrines the One-Person-One-Fare rule for all travel within, to, and from Canada.
Thank you.
