98,000 air passenger complaints are stuck in backlog as Carney considers sell off of airports

Canadian travellers stuck in bureaucratic limbo for years after a ruined holiday or delayed flight, it appears, are in very good company.

Bill C-31 and the pivot to private adjudication

The government’s proposed legislative fix under Bill C-31 fundamentally shifts responsibility from a public regulator to private entities.

As the system is set up now, the CTA handles resolutions in house, which at some point may have been sustainable. But with almost 100,000 unresolved files, the proposed overhaul will shift the files to independent, private adjudicators, chosen from a minister-approved list. In doing so, the hope is, the backlog will be processed and resolutions provided in short order.

While Canadians can currently expect to wait years for resolution, new proposed timelines mandate that complaints be resolved within 90 days, with mandatory payout orders to be settled within 90 days.

Airlines like Air Canada, which has an entire dedicated terminal at Toronto’s Pearson International Airport, have already started testing external arbitrators, including a pilot project that was launched with a subsidiary of UK-based CDRL Group.

Jeff Morrison, CEO, National Airlines Council of Canada, called the existing agency process “ineffective” while welcoming reform, but he urged the government to fund it to avoid the appearance of being “biased in favour of the airlines,” according to CTV News.

Warning flags: Why experts are raising alarms over privatized justice

It may sound like a logical way to resolve the backlog: outsource the problem. But the reality could look quite different. The proposal has raised concerns about potential conflicts of interest, lack of oversight and a loss of consumer rights.

Bill C-31 is a departure from strategies other countries have undertaken to handle traveller complaints. Unlike the European Union (EU) or UK models, where passengers can reject an ombudsman’s ruling, Bill C-31 makes private adjudication legally binding on the consumer.

We need to look no further than the banking sector’s move to a single ombudsman as a cautionary tale of consumer confusion.

Paul Daly, a law professor at the University of Ottawa, told CTV News that the idea of privatizing dispute resolution should be “viewed with suspicion,” saying that “Bill C-31 has none of that” necessary procedural structure to guarantee impartiality.

The conversation gets even more complex by opening the door to multiple private entities. Vincent Correia, an aviation law professor at McGill University in Montreal, warns that this could create uneven rulings. “With multiple actors potentially involved in the complaints resolutions, two passengers with the same facts could get different answers. That could hurt the passengers who cannot predict the outcome, and that would also hurt the airlines who cannot plan their compliance,” he told CTV News.

Ultimately, the benefit of Bill C-31, will be limited, at best, according to Sara Eve Levac, a lawyer with advocacy group Option consommateurs*.* Highlighting past financial sector precedents, Levac told CTV News that “a proliferation of private complaint-handling bodies did not benefit consumers.”

Infrastructure on the block: How airport monetization ties in

With so many backlogged complaints about negative experiences with Canadian airports, the broader economic push regarding major Canadian airport infrastructure, asset recycling and Mark Carney’s economic proposal are being brought into sharp focus.

Carney’s federal economic policy discussions have increasingly explored recycling public assets and encouraged private equity and institutional investment into major airport operations.