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After a series of cancelled Prince Rupert flights, NDP Transportation Critic and Skeena-Bulkley Valley MP Taylor Bachrach, presented a new bill to the House of Commons on March 20 that addresses airline passenger protection.

The private member鈥檚 bill, called Strengthening Air Passenger Protection, would force airlines to pay travellers compensation without delay and would put the onus on the airline to prove when cancellations are out of their control.

鈥淭he current system favours the airline because it鈥檚 so difficult for passengers to actually get the money they鈥檙e owed,鈥� Bachrach said.

鈥淲e want to flip the script on that and make compensation the norm rather than the exception.鈥�

Air passenger compensation requirements are laid out in the Canadian Transportation Act.

Currently, the act lists three types of disruptions 鈥� disruptions that are outside of an airline鈥檚 control, disruptions that are inside an airline鈥檚 control and disruptions that are inside an airline鈥檚 control but are required for safety.

鈥淚t鈥檚 that third category that airlines have been using to deny passengers compensation,鈥� Bachrach said.

Bachrach鈥檚 proposed bill suggests scrapping the current classification system and moving to just two categories 鈥� ordinary disruptions and extraordinary disruptions 鈥� with airlines being required to compensate customers for the former but not the latter.

Ordinary disruptions refer to anything the airline could have prevented through regular operation by doing things such as proper maintenance and ensuring there is enough crew available to fly the plane. Something like a major winter storm would fall under the extraordinary disruption category.

This is the system that the European Union uses, Bachrach said.

Paired with changes to the act, which would require airlines to provide compensation right away and to prove if the cancellation was due to extraordinary circumstances, passengers would not have to jump through as many hoops to be recompensed after their flights are cancelled.

鈥淲hat鈥檚 happening now is that airlines typically deny passenger鈥檚 requests for compensation under the Air Passenger Protection Regime, forcing them to go through the Canadian Transportation Agency complaint process, which involves a bunch of steps. Only a small fraction of affected passengers have the fortitude to navigate that much bureaucracy to pursue compensation.鈥�

According to the NDP, the Canadian Transportation Agency has more than 42,000 complaints backlogged, which they have said will take more than 18 months to get to.

Bachrach鈥檚 bill also proposes increasing the maximum financial penalties when airlines do not abide by the Canadian Transportation Act.

鈥淭he Canadian Transportation Agency rarely fines the airlines and when it does, it鈥檚 for such paltry amounts that it doesn鈥檛 really serve as a deterrent for future behaviour,鈥� the MP said.

鈥淎s long as the cost of following the rules is greater than the cost of breaking them, we鈥檙e going to see companies making that choice.鈥�

The NDP transportation critic would like to see the Liberal Party bring it forward as a government bill so it can be passed more quickly.

鈥淚t can take quite a bit of time for a private member鈥檚 bill to come forward for debate, but what I wanted to do in tabling this bill was to articulate in legislation the changes that consumer advocates can be calling for,鈥� he said.

Specifically, Bachrach said he worked with Air Passenger Rights, Public Interest Advocacy Centre and Option Consommateurs to draft the bill.

鈥淥ur message to the Minister is steal our homework. This isn鈥檛 about taking credit. It鈥檚 about protecting Canadian travellers and I hope he鈥檒l act on that message as quickly as possible.鈥�