I feel that perhaps two different questions got entangled here today. One question is about price transparency. When an average consumer, even a naive consumer, goes online to shop for their ticket, how easily will they know how much they are going to be able to travel for? What will be the total at the end? All these add-on junk fees actually get in the way of knowing what the price to be paid is at the end of the day.

Airlines could still give passengers discounts for not having a carry-on or any baggage, and I have no issue with that. It's just how the information is presented to the consumers that I am concerned about, from a passenger rights perspective.

The second question is a question of how air travel in Canada is funded. It's an important question, but it feels as though perhaps we are digressing from why this committee convened for today's meeting. In terms of the funding model, certainly there would be a lot to do to look at how airports are being funded. The airport improvement fee is a question. There's no oversight around how the airports operate. There's a long history of how those powers were transferred from the government to the airports, and it's a way of evading responsibility to the public.

Having said that, I also agree with those who question where the money is going to come from eventually. Somebody has to pay for it. There's no free lunch. For those airline executives who claim that some of those fees should be lowered from what they call government taxes, I want to hear, personally, as a passenger, who is going to pay for it. I have a neighbour in Halifax who told me that he hasn't flown for 30 years for various personal reasons. Why should he be subsidizing my air travel? How can we do it fairly? These are all important questions. From a passenger perspective, though, the immediate question is this: How is it possible, in 2024, that even though there are laws talking about price transparency and even though there are regulations, still such junk fees exist?

That is a problem the government could and should address very quickly. The government could do it with a stroke of a pen as a form of a Governor in Council order, and I urge you to do that. Thank you.

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