Toronto's Pearson airport now 2nd worst in world for delays. Ottawa says travel woes on the mend
CBC
Fatima Sherefa, 17, had a rough night at Toronto's Pearson Airport on Aug. 6.
Her flight from Toronto home to Winnipeg had been delayed several times and then, just after midnight, it was cancelled.
Sherefa says Air Canada staff didn't offer hotel accommodation for the night, and instead passed out yoga mats to stranded travellers.
Sherefa says she slept that night on one of the mats on the floor of a women's nursing room at the airport.
"It was very terrifying, but also a new experience that I don't think anyone should have to go through," she said.
Sherefa is just one of thousands of air passengers caught up in the travel chaos that has plagued Canada's major airports this summer. As COVID-19 restrictions were lifted in the spring, a sudden surge in travel led to mass delays and cancellations, and airport congestion.
On Friday, Transport Minister Omar Alghabra told the House of Commons transport committee that COVID-19 and a labour shortage within the aviation industry are to blame and that, with the government's help, the travel chaos is dissipating.
"We are seeing significant improvements over the last two months," he said.
But the chaos is far from over. Toronto's Pearson airport, which had the most flight delays in the world for most of the summer, has only moved into second place, according to flight tracking service FlightAware. And, since May, more than 7,000 disgruntled travellers have flooded the Canadian Transportation Agency (CTA) with complaints related to flight disruptions.
The ongoing problems have raised questions about whether the government is doing enough to fix the problem, and if it should have done more before the chaos started.
"The federal government needs to think about, why did this happen?" said Walid Hejazi, an associate professor of economic analysis and policy at the University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management.
"We're one of the richest countries in the world. It's completely unnecessary."
As with many countries, Canada's travel problems began when demand surged in the spring and many previously laid-off aviation workers didn't return — causing staffing shortages.
But Canada won international attention this summer by topping the charts for flight delays. According to FlightAware, from May through July, Pearson had the highest rate of delays among the world's 100 busiest airports and Montreal's Trudeau airport came in a close second.
Aggressive patients and lack of security are making nurses feel unsafe in a rural Western Manitoba emergency union, says the Manitoba Nurses Union.
Saskatoon resident Delynne Bortis knew her commute to work Tuesday morning would be particularly difficult.
WARNING: This story contains details of abuse and intimate partner violence:
The amount of money it takes for people to earn a living wage has increased across the province, according to a new report from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA).
The new owner of Ontario steelmaker Stelco says his company "will not disappoint the people of Hamilton and Nanticoke," where the business's major facilities are based.
A Winnipegger is warning others about an intricate scam she says she almost fell for.
Fort William First Nation is opposing a planned redevelopment of the Ontario Power Generation's (OPG) 117 year old Kakabeka Falls Generating Station, which is located in their traditional territory.
A building that sits at the corner of Sussex Street and Brunswick Avenue has had many lives over the last century — being a church, a school and offices. Now it's set to become housing, at a time when the city sorely needs it.
A Waterloo, Ont., elementary school principal will be sentenced in the new year after pleading guilty to child sexual exploitation charges following a joint investigation that involved the London, Toronto and Waterloo police services.
Students at UPEI have let their student union know what they want from the province this fiscal year, and those priorities are reflected in a 2024-2025 advocacy document brought to the legislature on Wednesday.
Larger communities in the N.W.T. will soon see a boost in their territorial funding to maintain infrastructure and deliver services — like water and waste management — but the increase still falls short of what communities need.