CBC has found documents showing senior Canadian government officials worked to delay cost-recovery of the air passenger complaints processing system through an airline-funded fee.
According to internal documents obtained by CBC’s Go Public, Transport Canada interfered with the work of the Canadian Transportation Agency (CTA) as it attempted to introduce a cost-recovery fee on airlines, despite Parliament instructing the agency to do so.
In 2023, Parliament told the CTA, which is designed to operate independantly, to implement a temporary fee that would shift some of the cost of handling eligible passenger complaints away from taxpayers and onto airlines. The move was meant to address a system buckling under the weight of unresolved claims.
Passengers who are denied compensation under Canada’s Air Passenger Protection Regulations can file complaints with the CTA. But the volume has surged to the point that the agency’s complaint process now costs roughly $30 million annually, a bill currently paid by taxpayers.
To help cover those costs, the CTA proposed a $790 fee per eligible passenger complaint and launched public consultations in the fall of 2024. Consumer advocates and many members of the public largely supported the measure.
Airlines and industry groups, however, pushed back hard. They argued the fee would encourage frivolous claims and said passengers should bear some of the cost themselves.
As covered by Open Jaw in September 2024, WestJet CEO Alexis von Hoensbroech described the proposed fee as “an invitation to game the system,” likening it to giving passengers “a free spin on the roulette wheel.”
More than two years after Parliament’s directive, the fee still hasn't been implemented. Go Public filed an Access to Information request with the CTA covering the period from 01AUG, 2024, to 20MAY, 2025. The request yielded more than 2,000 pages of records.
Among them is a letter from former transport minister Anita Anand criticizing the CTA for proceeding with public consultations, noting that Transport Canada officials had asked the agency to delay them.
That intervention raised red flags for legal experts. Constitutional law professor Paul Daly told CBC that assessing the adequacy of consultations is not the transport minister’s role. “It’s very clear that it is the agency’s job to decide who should be consulted,” he said.
CBC reports that the CTA’s backlog now exceeds 88,000 complaints and could balloon to more than 150,000 by 2028 if no changes are made.
CBC sought interviews with the CTA, government officials, and Transport Canada. None agreed to comment.
