Thank you very much.

My name is Sébastien Benedict, and I am the vice-president for public affairs and communications at the Alliance de l'industrie touristique du Québec.

The Alliance is a non-profit organization that represents 12,000 businesses and 50 regional and sectoral tourism associations. We are the largest specialized tourism business federation in Canada.

You may be wondering why you've invited tourism industry representatives to appear today before a parliamentary committee that's studying air travel competition and the competitiveness of flights to remote communities. The reason is that tourism really happens everywhere you go. When you go to a hotel or a restaurant, you do business with a tourism entrepreneur. If you go fishing, hunting at a hunting lodge, camping, skiing or boating, or if you attend a festival or some other event, chances are that tourism businesses organized those activities.

The vitality of our remote regions depends heavily on the vitality of our existing tourism industry. That vitality is an important factor in supporting regional economies, in land use and in protecting language; it also helps in transmitting the culture of each of those communities.

Quebec is divided into administrative regions, but it also consists of what are considered tourism regions. We have 21 tourism regions, many of which are northern or remote, such as the Bas-Saint-Laurent, Gaspésie, the Îles-de-la-Madeleine, Abitibi-Témiscamingue, Saguenay—Lac-Saint-Jean, the Côte-Nord, Baie-James, Eeyou Istchee and Nunavik.

In 2022, only 17% of registered flights in Quebec were flights to remote regions. In addition, only 3% of passengers who took those flights actually travelled to remote regions. As these numbers suggest, it's very difficult for an airline to offer reliable, regular and profitable flights to regional destinations. Furthermore, when tourists are asked why they prefer not to vacation in remote regions, they always cite the same reasons: price, flight availability and flight reliability.

To remedy the situation, in April 2022, the Quebec government introduced a new program, the Programme d'accès aérien aux régions, commonly called “the $500 tickets program”. Consumers need only go to the website of a participating air carrier and purchase a ticket directly. Their flight to a destination in one of the regions I just mentioned could depart from Quebec City, Montreal or Saint-Hubert airports. The carrier then simply contacts Quebec's Ministry of Transport and Sustainable Mobility to be reimbursed.

We are very pleased with the program, which I can discuss with you later should you be interested in more details. However, some improvements to the program would be desirable. We find it ironic that, on the one hand, the Quebec government subsidizes airline tickets using taxpayers' money to cut costs while, on the other hand, the federal government imposes numerous charges on airports and airlines that inflate ticket prices. It's as though there was a fire in the regions and the provincial government was trying to extinguish it while the federal government poured on the gasoline. Consequently, it's impossible to stabilize ticket prices. The federal and provincial governments really should review this dynamic because it isn't working.

Lastly, in 2020, the Alliance, together with the Fédération des chambres de commerce du Québec, the Union des municipalités du Québec and the Conseil du patronat du Québec, drafted a lengthy brief on the regional air transport situation in Quebec. Four findings emerged from that joint effort: first, regional air transport is an essential service if we want to occupy our land; second, we can't realize our ambitions under the present model if we want reliable access to the regions; third, there is a real observed consensus and a desire within the tourism industry and Quebec's business community to work closely with existing carriers; and, fourth, one could say that demand hasn't been properly stimulated and that it is therefore difficult to establish the tourist volume necessary to achieve profitability.

Four years and one pandemic later, we believe that these four findings are still valid. Despite the many efforts made at the provincial level in recent years to bring together all the actors, that is to say government, carriers and airports, we realize there has to be a better alignment, a better synergy, between the federal and provincial governments if we want this to work. Otherwise, we fear we're going nowhere.

There's one thing that I'd really like you to take away from the Alliance's appearance today: that the solutions that should be introduced to improve air transport reliability cannot exclude tourism. It's essential that the tourism industry co-operate closely with governments and businesses. If we want flights to remote regions eventually to be profitable, and if there are to be affordable connections every day, the tourism industry must be part of the equation. That's what will really help us fill flights.

Thank you once again for including the tourism industry in your committee's study. I will be pleased to answer your questions.