Air Canada is suspending passenger service to Yellowknife on Jan. 23 until further notice.
The airline said in an email on Tuesday that it’s cutting flights to the Northwest Territories capital due to “stifled demand from ongoing travel restrictions and blanket quarantine rules” stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Operating in this environment is not sustainable and we have made difficult decisions to suspend all passenger operations to Yellowknife airport until further notice, effective January 23, 2021.”
Minister of Infrastructure Diane Archie said the territorial government is disappointed but “understands that businesses must make decisions that they believe best fit with their business model and market conditions.”
She said the decision will not affect the territory’s ability to provide medical travel services that residents depend on to access services outside the N.W.T.
A spokesperson for Omar Alghabra, the federal minister of transport, said the department was disappointed the airline cancelled more regional routes.
“Accessibility of all of our regions is important and air links are essential to regional economic development and prosperity,” said Allison St-Jean.
She added the federal government knows major airlines need support and is developing a package of assistance for the airline industry.
“Before we spend one penny of taxpayer money on airlines, we will ensure that Canadians get their refunds, regional communities retain air connections to the rest of Canada andCanadian air carriers maintain their status as key customers of Canada’s aerospace industry,” St-Jean said.
In its email, Air Canada says its “overall network capacity” is down about 80 per cent from 2019.
The airline says it will continue to evaluate and adjust its routes based on the trajectory of the pandemic and travel restrictions.
Air Canada did not immediately respond to a request for an interview.
Gabor Lukacs, president of the non-profit organization Air Passenger Rights, said Air Canada has no legal obligation to operate a route anywhere.
However, he said, passengers have “an unconditional right to a refund” if a flight for which they bought a ticket has been cancelled.
“Airlines have been delinquent in respecting consumers rights, so I cannot be sure that they are going to honour the right of passengers out of their own volition,” he said.
“Before we spend one penny of taxpayer money on airlines, we will ensure that Canadians get their refunds, regional communities retain air connections to the rest of Canada andCanadian air carriers maintain their status as key customers of Canada’s aerospace industry.
A spokesperson for Air Canada said in an email to CBC News that “any affected customers will be contacted and provided options, including refunds as applicable.”
Gabor Lukacs, president of the non-profit organization Air Passenger Rights, says Air Canada has no legal obligation to operate a route anywhere, but passengers have ‘an unconditional right to a refund’ if a flight for which they bought a ticket has been cancelled. (Robert Short/CBC)
Others maintaining service
The announcement didn’t come as a surprise to Joe Sparling, president of Air North.
Last summer, the Yukon-based airline suspended its planned service between Whitehorse, Yellowknife and Ottawa, citing reduced travel demand and border restrictions.
“The Yellowknife market clearly could not support multiple carriers in this environment and Whitehorse is in a very similar situation,” he said.
WestJet and Canadian North also run passenger flights to Yellowknife.
In an email to CBC News, a spokesperson for Canadian North said the company intends “to maintain our current services.”
WestJet said it continues to operate four flights a week between Yellowknife and Calgary.
The airline said it has been forced to suspend the vast majority of its flights across the country due to the pandemic and is operating at 80 per cent less capacity than a year ago.
VANCOUVER – Contract negotiations resume today in Vancouver in a labour dispute that has paralyzed container cargo shipping at British Columbia’s ports since Monday.
The BC Maritime Employers Association and International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 514 are scheduled to meet for the next three days in mediated talks to try to break a deadlock in negotiations.
The union, which represents more than 700 longshore supervisors at ports, including Vancouver, Prince Rupert and Nanaimo, has been without a contract since March last year.
The latest talks come after employers locked out workers in response to what it said was “strike activity” by union members.
The start of the lockout was then followed by several days of no engagement between the two parties, prompting federal Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon to speak with leaders on both sides, asking them to restart talks.
MacKinnon had said that the talks were “progressing at an insufficient pace, indicating a concerning absence of urgency from the parties involved” — a sentiment echoed by several business groups across Canada.
In a joint letter, more than 100 organizations, including the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, Business Council of Canada and associations representing industries from automotive and fertilizer to retail and mining, urged the government to do whatever it takes to end the work stoppage.
“While we acknowledge efforts to continue with mediation, parties have not been able to come to a negotiated agreement,” the letter says. “So, the federal government must take decisive action, using every tool at its disposal to resolve this dispute and limit the damage caused by this disruption.
“We simply cannot afford to once again put Canadian businesses at risk, which in turn puts Canadian livelihoods at risk.”
In the meantime, the union says it has filed a complaint to the Canada Industrial Relations Board against the employers, alleging the association threatened to pull existing conditions out of the last contract in direct contact with its members.
“The BCMEA is trying to undermine the union by attempting to turn members against its democratically elected leadership and bargaining committee — despite the fact that the BCMEA knows full well we received a 96 per cent mandate to take job action if needed,” union president Frank Morena said in a statement.
The employers have responded by calling the complaint “another meritless claim,” adding the final offer to the union that includes a 19.2 per cent wage increase over a four-year term remains on the table.
“The final offer has been on the table for over a week and represents a fair and balanced proposal for employees, and if accepted would end this dispute,” the employers’ statement says. “The offer does not require any concessions from the union.”
The union says the offer does not address the key issue of staffing requirement at the terminals as the port introduces more automation to cargo loading and unloading, which could potentially require fewer workers to operate than older systems.
The Port of Vancouver is the largest in Canada and has seen a number of labour disruptions, including two instances involving the rail and grain storage sectors earlier this year.
A 13-day strike by another group of workers at the port last year resulted in the disruption of a significant amount of shipping and trade.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
The Royal Canadian Legion says a new partnership with e-commerce giant Amazon is helping boost its veterans’ fund, and will hopefully expand its donor base in the digital world.
Since the Oct. 25 launch of its Amazon.ca storefront, the legion says it has received nearly 10,000 orders for poppies.
Online shoppers can order lapel poppies on Amazon in exchange for donations or buy items such as “We Remember” lawn signs, Remembrance Day pins and other accessories, with all proceeds going to the legion’s Poppy Trust Fund for Canadian veterans and their families.
Nujma Bond, the legion’s national spokesperson, said the organization sees this move as keeping up with modern purchasing habits.
“As the world around us evolves we have been looking at different ways to distribute poppies and to make it easier for people to access them,” she said in an interview.
“This is definitely a way to reach a wider number of Canadians of all ages. And certainly younger Canadians are much more active on the web, on social media in general, so we’re also engaging in that way.”
Al Plume, a member of a legion branch in Trenton, Ont., said the online store can also help with outreach to veterans who are far from home.
“For veterans that are overseas and are away, (or) can’t get to a store they can order them online, it’s Amazon.” Plume said.
Plume spent 35 years in the military with the Royal Engineers, and retired eight years ago. He said making sure veterans are looked after is his passion.
“I’ve seen the struggles that our veterans have had with Veterans Affairs … and that’s why I got involved, with making sure that the people get to them and help the veterans with their paperwork.”
But the message about the Amazon storefront didn’t appear to reach all of the legion’s locations, with volunteers at Branch 179 on Vancouver’s Commercial Drive saying they hadn’t heard about the online push.
Holly Paddon, the branch’s poppy campaign co-ordinator and bartender, said the Amazon partnership never came up in meetings with other legion volunteers and officials.
“I work at the legion, I work with the Vancouver poppy office and I go to the meetings for the Vancouver poppy campaign — which includes all the legions in Vancouver — and not once has this been mentioned,” she said.
Paddon said the initiative is a great idea, but she would like to have known more about it.
The legion also sells a larger collection of items at poppystore.ca.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
