The Blueprint: Canada's Conservative Podcast - What Will the Liberal Government Do for the Canadian Aviation Industry？

00:00:00.000 Hello and welcome once again to The Blueprint. It is Canada's Conservative Podcast. I'm your

00:00:07.520 host, Jamie Schmael, Member of Parliament for Halliburton Court of Lakes Brock. New

00:00:11.540 content every single Tuesday. We appreciate your attendance here today. As usual, if you

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00:00:28.040 together we can push back against the ever-moving Liberal agenda. Although we did take a week

00:00:33.620 off last week during the Christmas holidays between Christmas and New Year's, we are back.

00:00:38.500 We have a great guest. We're going to talk about the airline industry and a few things that

00:00:42.640 have happened since we took that break, especially on New Year's Eve, which I really want to focus

00:00:47.520 on to start. So I'll bring in our guest, Stephanie Cusey. She's the Member of Parliament for Calgary

00:00:52.360 Mindepore. She's also the Shadow Minister for Transport. Good friend of the show. Thank

00:00:56.400 you, Stephanie, for joining us. Jamie, thank you so much for having me here today. I truly

00:01:01.320 appreciate the opportunity to come here and talk to Conservatives from coast to coast to

00:01:05.540 coast. And those who are looking for a different message than the mainstream media, someone who

00:01:11.000 might consider voting Conservative, and that's why we ask you to like, comment, subscribe, share

00:01:16.520 this program. And this way we can hopefully, and our goal is to form the next majority Conservative

00:01:22.740 government here in the great country of Canada. Now, the airline industry, this is why I brought

00:01:27.600 you on, Stephanie, because this is something that was, as an Ontarian, really frustrated me.

00:01:33.560 So before Christmas, just to give you some background, Doug Ford talked about some measures

00:01:37.560 he was taking to lock down the province after numbers started to surge. And we've seen similar

00:01:42.840 surges in Manitoba and Alberta and Quebec and elsewhere. One of the issues he pointed out was

00:01:49.340 how testing is not being done at our airports. Specifically, in this case, he's referring to was

00:01:56.080 Pearson International Airport, which is one of the hubs. Calgary is a little different. We'll talk about

00:02:00.260 that in just a second. Now, immediately after he said that, after he challenged the federal government

00:02:07.140 to start bringing in rapid testing at our airport, something that the Conservatives federally have been

00:02:13.280 calling for for months, months and months and months. The blue checks on the Twitter mafia went

00:02:19.880 ballistic, just went absolutely off the charts. We have some graphics here. I don't know if we can show

00:02:29.320 them here of some of the some of the Liberal MPs who were losing their minds. Some of them, some of our

00:02:35.700 favourites are posted there, how this was just absolutely, how could Doug Ford say this?

00:02:42.920 Then, and there's another one, another Ontarian. Then, a few days later on New Year's, sorry, Stephanie,

00:02:49.420 you are here. I'm teeing this up for you. I'm teeing this up nice for you. Then on New Year's Eve,

00:02:54.740 after calling Conservatives obstructionist and even you and Michelle Rempel-Garner and many of our other

00:03:01.800 colleagues who have been calling for this for months were just pushed aside. Then on New Year's Eve,

00:03:08.980 in comes news that, guess what? We're starting rapid testing on January 7th and nobody can enter the

00:03:16.140 country without a clear test. Otherwise, you're brought to a federal quarantine facility. Stephanie,

00:03:21.200 I have talked too long. I take it from there. What is going on?

00:03:25.700 Not at all. Not at all, Jamie. I think you've set up the issue really nicely. I mean,

00:03:31.140 I think there are two factors here and you've touched on the first one. The first one is,

00:03:35.920 frankly, the motivation behind this announcement and, yeah, this announcement and this new measure

00:03:42.660 taken by the federal government. Why did it take them so long to come to this conclusion that this

00:03:47.840 was a necessity for all Canadians entering the country? So, I think Canadians are right to question 1.00

00:03:53.400 the motivation of why now, why suddenly, when the official opposition has been calling on this for

00:03:59.540 months and months and months. But I think more important and more critical at this date, January

00:04:05.780 5th, less than 48 hours before the expected implementation of this new measure, Jamie,

00:04:11.340 is just the unrealistic expectation to implement this measure so quickly that has left airlines

00:04:18.360 in a complete tizzy as to how they will implement it. And I will add, you know, this is a government

00:04:23.820 that has given the airline sector no support up until this point. And you've heard me go on and on

00:04:30.080 about this as the shadow minister for transport. We have criticized repetitively the lack of support

00:04:36.840 that this government has given the airline sector. And what have we seen as a result of that?

00:04:42.200 Well, tens of thousands of jobs lost across the country to start. The loss of regional routes,

00:04:49.100 communities actually completely isolated at this point with no in or out routes as a result of

00:04:54.400 this government's inaction. And as well before, right before the holiday season, Jamie, we saw the

00:04:59.600 possibility of several air towers being closed across the country in major centers like Windsor and

00:05:07.040 and Regina as a result of this government's inaction. So this government has been completely

00:05:12.080 absent in support of the airline sector for coming on 10 months now. And then now they have the audacity

00:05:19.220 to ask the airline sector to implement this program in a matter of days with very little instruction.

00:05:26.880 I will tell you they were still working on the interim orders as late as last night. I've been in

00:05:31.580 constant communication with aviation stakeholders. But guess who else this affects, Jamie? This affects

00:05:36.420 thousands of Canadians that are abroad right now in a panic contacting our constituency offices

00:05:42.460 because they don't know what to do. There's been very little guidance given as to the process up to

00:05:49.860 this point. They know, we know that it has to be 72 hours in advance. It's all Canadians over the age 1.00

00:05:55.300 of five. But it has to be from a named vendor on a list as provided by Global Affairs. And anyone has yet

00:06:02.420 to see that list. So if I'm sitting in Puerto Vallarta right now, Jamie, with my family of four, and I've scheduled

00:06:07.880 for a flight on January 8, I'm at a loss for what to do. And I don't know what's going to happen when I show up at

00:06:13.440 the airport, much less come to the port of entry. It's a complete chaos that was started by this government

00:06:20.340 months and months ago as they abandoned the airline sector, and continues now as they ask for rapid

00:06:26.440 implementation with very little guidance and certainly no support, Jamie.

00:06:31.720 Now, it's my understanding, and correct me if I'm wrong, like the airline industry and others, but in this

00:06:38.540 particular topic, we're talking about the airline industry, they had ideas months and months ago on how

00:06:44.740 they could implement different measures to help keep travellers safe and the airline somewhat

00:06:50.780 going, if you will, based on the fact that they are bleeding dollars every single day.

00:06:59.620 You are absolutely correct. Any airline, any of the major airlines are looking at a net loss of $20

00:07:06.140 million a day as a result of the government's inaction and lack of support and effort to help them.

00:07:12.500 But more importantly, you are correct. The industry has invested incredible resources in trying

00:07:20.700 to find alternatives and solutions for the travelling public. We look at tons of examples across the

00:07:27.120 country. First, they did a pilot project in YYZ to look at those arriving internationally to see

00:07:35.160 the rates of COVID upon arrival. Then WestJet implemented another pilot project at YVR. Following that,

00:07:43.940 we saw the very well-known McMaster pilot, which compiled scientific evidence to see the numbers of

00:07:52.560 Canadians arriving with COVID. Upon their evaluation of the data they collected, their data showed that

00:08:02.280 it was about 1% of individuals arriving in Canada with the COVID virus. They took the testing process

00:08:10.940 where they did a test upon arrival, results usually at day two. They found out that 0.7 of that 1%

00:08:17.680 showed positive at that time. At day seven, it was down to about 0.3. And at day 14, it was less than 0.1.

00:08:26.140 And they actually even attribute that potentially to, I hate to say it, Jamie, but Canadians breaking 0.66

00:08:31.320 quarantine. And so the point is that, you know, after seven days, we are not seeing any information

00:08:39.980 in the data that would show us that there was a necessity beyond a seven-day quarantine. But my

00:08:44.400 points are, number one, you're absolutely correct. The government, pardon me, industry has invested

00:08:50.740 time and time again in these pilot projects. And you mentioned my hometown of Calgary, YYC, the COOTS

00:08:57.340 project here, implementation. And I'll get back to that in a moment. But we've seen incredible

00:09:03.580 investment by this industry in an attempt to implement nationwide testing for individuals

00:09:11.000 returning to Canada to gather data, but also to reduce quarantine. Now, the next question is then,

00:09:17.140 this is being implemented here at YYC with a lot of success. Why? Why can't the government just take

00:09:24.020 this one project here in Alberta and replicate it all across the country? We've done it successfully

00:09:30.460 here in Alberta. Why can't we implement this at YYZ? Why can't we implement this at YVR? Instead of

00:09:36.740 counting on thousands of other third-party vendors internationally, which we have raised many

00:09:44.940 questions as the official opposition, will take a lot of time to determine the certainty, the efficacy,

00:09:52.720 the time. I know many Canadians abroad are worried as they've seen certain third-party vendors jack up

00:09:58.680 their prices as this information becomes available, that this requirement is going into place.

00:10:05.120 Jamie, it would have been far simpler to have rolled out nationwide rapid testing at our airports,

00:10:12.280 like we've done at home here in Alberta, with the 14-day, and I would say, I would go so far as to say

00:10:17.800 even reduce to a seven-day quarantine, rather than go through this international rigmarole.

00:10:24.660 I was actually thinking this morning, Jamie, that I'm so grateful I'm still not a management consular

00:10:30.640 officer in the Foreign Service today, where I am in any country abroad scrambling to determine vendors,

00:10:37.740 to determine credible vendors, to determine cost-affordable credible vendors in an effort

00:10:43.540 to get Canadians back to Canada. I'm glad I'm not in that position, but the government has 0.98

00:10:48.160 approached this completely wrong, and industry agrees. So this is one quote that came from the

00:10:53.020 Prime Minister when the opposition was calling for stricter measures at the border. This is a quote,

00:10:57.280 there is a lot of knee-jerk reaction that isn't keeping people safe. That is having real challenging

00:11:03.420 impacts on communities, on community safety. Now, challenge that to the tweet that came out next

00:11:12.100 after the government announced the measures on January 7th with rapid testing and the requirement

00:11:17.360 of a COVID-negative test. Now, he is saying, this is something that we need to move forward on

00:11:24.160 to protect Canadians. That about-face, apparently testing is horrible until the Liberals decide it's

00:11:32.080 an okay thing to do. Something that we've all in the opposition bench has been calling for,

00:11:36.620 that we've seen in other countries, and start to somehow bring some of their economy bats back

00:11:43.860 as safely as possible. Yeah, and you mentioned it at the start of the show, Jamie, and that is that

00:11:49.300 we do have to question the political motivation. Why this measure? Why now? You are absolutely correct.

00:11:57.740 But having said that, the Liberals are experts in creating chaos. I think we've seen this time and

00:12:04.340 time again. We look at the measures that were implemented initially at the beginning of this

00:12:09.280 crisis. They wanted to have uninfringed spending limits in an effort to implement their programs.

00:12:17.500 We, as the Conservative opposition, held them to account to not have this. They actually made

00:12:23.040 several errors in their legislation, which forced us to return to the House to correct those measures.

00:12:29.180 I mean, I even look at something like an issue that's very important in my backyard, Jamie,

00:12:34.480 the Trans Mountain Pipeline there. They're talking out of both sides of their mouth. They're saying,

00:12:40.200 we want to do this, yet we don't see any shovels in the grounds in terms of really any

00:12:45.760 true motivation to move this project forward. So it's the same thing here. It's a reactive decision,

00:12:53.320 and what does it do? It forces Canadians to have to respond to that, and public servants. I have a lot

00:12:59.420 of sympathy for the public servants that continuously have to respond to the whims of this government,

00:13:05.180 and specifically at the transport and public health agencies at this time. But Liberals do this

00:13:10.380 constantly. They make reactive decisions that create chaos for Canadians.

00:13:15.900 Or they take too long to make them because they'd rather study it. So they're at one point telling

00:13:19.780 people, you must quarantine, you must quarantine, but yet we're going to study the decision on whether

00:13:25.080 or not to implement rapid tests. Well, if it's so imperative that we quarantine, the rapid test should

00:13:30.240 be a no-brainer, you would think. Clearly not. So what's in store for the airline industry? How are they

00:13:35.500 going to recover from the pandemic? We could also expand it to all the travel industry, but that's a

00:13:43.060 little difficult and probably a longer conversation. But for the airline industries that is bleeding

00:13:49.940 money right now, they're looking forward to the vaccine, I'm assuming, the rapid testing. Hopefully

00:13:55.680 it gets expanded. What else are they saying? No, that's a very good point. They have been suffering

00:14:03.840 for several months now, as I've mentioned previous times as a result of the inaction of this

00:14:09.260 government. I think most importantly, Jamie, they are looking to get through the next 72 hours as this

00:14:14.760 government determines its final interim orders for implementation. I have said this as a former

00:14:20.520 consular officer. I've had talks with our foreign affairs shadow minister, Michael Chong. I foresee a

00:14:26.780 consular nightmare like we have not seen since the beginning of this pandemic. So I really think the 1.00

00:14:31.980 airlines right now are focused on getting through the next month until these orders are recognized and

00:14:39.560 they've had some time to adapt to that. Beyond that, you are correct. They are looking forward to the

00:14:45.340 vaccine as the public gets more comfortable with traveling. And I know certainly some of the major

00:14:53.060 carriers such as Air Canada, WestJet, they have done their best to adapt to this time. I've said this time

00:14:59.020 and time again, there's been very little guidance from the federal government, they came out with

00:15:02.920 one health and safety documents back in August called flight plan. But really, we haven't seen

00:15:07.900 any direction since that time. It's it's more interesting, actually, it's the more it's the

00:15:13.580 smaller carriers, for example, such as Porter, Central Mountain Air that I talked to, that really decided,

00:15:19.820 hey, we're just going to sit back and wait for the vaccine to, to arrive and to be distributed through

00:15:28.060 throughout the communities. So I think they are definitely looking forward to the vaccine. But,

00:15:33.500 you know, every month is a matter of life or death for for this industry. And you touched upon the travel

00:15:40.620 industry. And certainly, we do see the ripple effects throughout the entire industry. So you're,

00:15:46.780 you are correct in assessing that it does go beyond the airlines. But I think that the for the airlines,

00:15:53.900 it'll just be a continuing sort of holding on by this by the skin of their teeth, until the market

00:16:01.420 returns as a result of the vaccine and Canadians become increasingly comfortable with air traffic.

00:16:07.980 Because I think this government has shown when every other nation in the G7 and the G20 has received some

00:16:14.780 form of support from their government. And this one is not in month 10. I just I don't think they can

00:16:21.020 count on it. And and I don't blame them. Well, Stephanie, I don't even know how to ask you for

00:16:28.940 a closing comment on that, because that kind of says it for itself. Did you want to add anything else

00:16:35.020 before I let go? I would just like to commend the airline industry. I mean, this is the industry

00:16:41.340 that brought Canadians back when they were stranded all around the world, left to rot by the government

00:16:48.220 for the following eight months. And now we're being told to pick up their bootstraps again to

00:16:53.980 implement this new process to bring all the Canadians back who have had the necessity or the means to travel 0.60

00:17:01.180 externally. And why, Jamie, does this always fall upon industry and Canadians, especially when the

00:17:08.780 problems are our government made? And in this case, they certainly were and they aren't providing the

00:17:14.780 solutions. And don't forget, I want to reiterate, you mentioned it earlier. We, as the opposition,

00:17:21.020 has been calling for Health Canada to ramp up their efforts to approve a wide variety of rapid testing

00:17:28.540 for Canadians so that we are able to safely and responsibly reopen our economies. And this is

00:17:35.820 something that has been at a snail's pace, it feels like, when many other countries, and I've said it

00:17:41.180 many times on this program, have approved rapid testing in various forms. A lot of it in the European

00:17:47.500 Union, which many would say is the gold standard, the United States, and slowly Canada is getting there,

00:17:54.700 but it is taking forever. A snail's pace is generous, Jamie.

00:18:02.540 Well, that is perfect. Well done, Stephanie Cousy, the Shadow Minister for Transport, also

00:18:07.180 the Member of Parliament for Calgary, Mindepore. We always appreciate her participation on the show.

00:18:12.060 I know you've been on many times before. We hope to have you on many times again as this situation

00:18:17.420 unrolls and unravels. And we do appreciate your input. That as a critic, but also as a former

00:18:23.020 diplomat, you certainly give us a lot of knowledge outside of that. So we appreciate your time.

00:18:30.620 Thank you so much for having me, Jamie. It's always great to be here. This is a great podcast.

00:18:35.660 You're a great host. I'd love to be back anytime. Well, with compliments like that,

00:18:39.820 you can come back next week. So remember, new content each and every Tuesday, 1.30pm Eastern Time.

00:18:46.380 Please comment, like, subscribe, share this program, help us push back against the ever-moving

00:18:51.500 Liberal agenda, and also reach members of your network, your friends, maybe a neighbour that might

00:18:57.420 not have access to this program. Maybe they might hear a different message, something they're not

00:19:01.660 hearing on the mainstream media, and like the Conservative message. And together with that, we can

00:19:05.980 help move toward making Erin O'Toole the next Prime Minister of Canada. So thank you very much for

00:19:11.340 joining us. Remember, low taxes, less government, that's the blueprint. Thanks for joining us.

The Blueprint: Canada's Conservative Podcast - January 13, 2021

What Will the Liberal Government Do for the Canadian Aviation Industry？

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