Minister of Transport Omar Alghabra appears as a witness at the Public Order Emergency Commission in Ottawa on Wednesday, November 23, 2022. Transport Minister Omar Alghabra has accepted a request from fellow members of Parliament to appear before a committee that is seeking answers about what led to a chaotic holiday travel season. THE CANADIAN PRESS/ Patrick Doyle
ONTARIO – A parliamentary committee wants to hear from passengers who found their holiday travel plans sidelined by delays and cancellations.
Members of the federal transport committee voted in favour of a motion to study the widespread disruptions that affected thousands of people who travelled by air and rail in recent weeks.
Representatives from Air Canada and WestJet are among the witnesses MPs want to hear from, along with leaders from Via Rail and the vacation airline Sunwing.
Hundreds of travellers found themselves stranded in Mexico after Sunwing cancelled flights because of poor weather conditions, while passengers were stuck on a train between Ottawa and Toronto for upward of 20 hours.
During today’s meeting to discuss the scope of the study, MPs also added affected travellers and air passenger advocates to the list of those they want to hear from.
Transport Minister Omar Alghabra plans to attend a future meeting as well, after calls from Conservative and New Democrat MPs who say he must answer for how his Liberal government responded to the widespread disruptions.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 9, 2023.
