Government documents suggest Ottawa stalled airline fee meant to fund passenger complaints system

Internal government documents obtained by Go Public suggest Transport Canada officials and successive transport ministers worked to delay — and potentially undermine — an effort to force airlines to help pay for Canada’s air passenger complaints system.

The records show Transport Canada — under two different transport ministers — repeatedly intervened in the work of the Canadian Transportation Agency (CTA), which is supposed to operate independently and was directed by Parliament in 2023 to introduce a cost-recovery fee on airlines. 

More than two and a half years later, the fee still does not exist. 

Taxpayers continue to cover roughly $30 million a year to process air passenger complaints and the backlog of people seeking compensation continues to grow — already topping more than 88,000.

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Passengers who are denied compensation after such things as flight delays, denied boarding or lost luggage can file complaints with the CTA. But because the complaints system has been overwhelmed, as a temporary measure to recover part of the cost, Parliament ordered the agency to charge airlines a fee for cases involving passengers with eligible claims. 

To understand why the fee has not been implemented, Go Public filed an Access to Information request with the CTA, covering the period from Aug. 1, 2024 to May 20, 2025.

More than 2,000 pages of heavily repetitious records include correspondence between the CTA and multiple transport ministers, internal discussions about how to respond to government concerns about the proposed fee, and submissions from a public consultation process. 

The documents were reviewed by Gábor Lukács, founder of Air Passenger Rights, an advocacy organization that made a submission on the proposed fee.

“What I am seeing here is strong evidence of ministerial interference with the CTA’s work, which is supposed to be independent,” said Lukács.

Neither the CTA, the transport minister, nor the ministry — which is also known as Transport Canada — agreed to interviews. Transport Canada provided a general statement about its role that did not answer Go Public’s specific questions. Former ministers of transport in office since the CTA was directed to implement a fee did not respond to our questions.

CTA proposes fee – and faces pushback

After Parliament ordered the fee for airlines in 2023, the agency proposed charging $790 for each eligible passenger complaint.

The CTA held public consultations in the fall of 2024, receiving 83 written submissions. 

Consumer groups and members of the public largely supported the fee. Airlines and industry representatives opposed it, arguing that the fee will incentivize frivolous claims and that passengers should shoulder some of the costs of the complaints process – an option Parliament had not authorized.

Anita Anand asks for delay

Many of the internal records are heavily redacted, but among the records is a letter from then-transport minister Anita Anand to the chair of the CTA, dated October 2024.

Anand criticized the agency for proceeding with public consultation as she was about to assume the transport portfolio, writing that Transport Canada officials had “repeatedly asked” the CTA to delay public consultation.

Documents show ministry officials also emailed the CTA to express concerns about the proposal, including the fee amount. They argued that setting the fee at $790 would incentivize airlines to payout baseless claims.

The CTA had sought input from Anand’s predecessor, Pablo Rodriguez.

“I should have been accorded, as the incoming Minister, the opportunity to provide my input to the proposal,” wrote Anand. “Notification to the previous Minister is insufficient.”

She also questioned whether the CTA had “undertaken sufficient due diligence” to justify the $790 fee, noting that both Rodriguez and her deputy minister had previously raised “concerns” about the proposal.

Anand asked the CTA to delay implementing “any cost-recovery fee” until broader changes to the Air Passenger Protection Regulations were completed — changes that have still not been introduced.

She also requested that the CTA “refrain from implementing any decision on the fee” because she had not been adequately consulted.

‘Constitutionally inappropriate,’ expert says

Pauly Daly, research chair in administrative law and governance at the University of Ottawa, said Anand’s position was “spurious” and “constitutionally inappropriate.”

“The clock doesn’t restart on consultation or anything else when a new minister takes office,” said Daly. “It is not the personal property of whoever happens to be occupying the office at a particular point in time.”

He also says that judging the adequacy of consultation is a matter for the CTA, not for the minister and her civil servants.

“It’s very clear that it is the agency’s job to decide who should be consulted,” said Daly. 

Lukács says the minister’s request crossed a line.

“What we are seeing here is that the government, and the minister in particular, are sabotaging Parliament’s will,” he said.

Though framed as a request, Lukács said the message would have been understood as a directive, coming from someone “who can decide whom they hire … at the Canadian Transportation Agency.” 

‘Deliberately sabotaging’ implementation

By May 2025, a new transport minister — Chrystia Freeland — was in office. The CTA chair wrote to Freeland, saying the agency was “ready and would like to move forward with the implementation of cost recovery.”

What happened next is unclear. The internal documents stop at the end of May, as that is when Go Public requested the records, which were provided last month.  

However, the documents make one thing clear, said Lukács.

“Transport Canada and various ministers of transport have been deliberately sabotaging the implementation of the cost recovery fee and interfering with the CTA’s independence,” he said. “Under the guise of a dubious right to be consulted.”

Daly, the constitutional law expert, says the ongoing delay is especially troubling because Parliament used mandatory language when it told the CTA it “shall” implement a fee airlines must pay.

“‘Shall’ means the agency has to do it,” said Daly. “It can’t consult indefinitely. It has to act.”

Airlines lobby heavily

While the fee remains stalled, the airline industry has been active on Parliament Hill.

Public lobbying records show representatives from Canada’s major airlines and associations have held almost 150 meetings with government officials since Parliament directed the CTA to create the cost-recovery fee.

Those meetings included discussions with the chair of the CTA, the Prime Minister’s Office, senior Transport Canada officials, MPs and ministers — including current Transport Minister Steven MacKinnon. 

Dozens of WestJet lobbying records specifically list “cost recovery proposals” as a discussion topic, while others airlines provide more vague descriptions for what was discussed. 

Daly says it’s not surprising airlines would push back against a fee that affects profits. What is disappointing, he says, is the failure of the regulatory system to function as intended.

“It’s making it impossible for Canadians to vindicate the rights that Parliament has given them,” said Daly. “To claim compensation from airlines.”

One final detail in the internal documents highlights the cost of the delay for Canadians.

The CTA currently has a backlog of more than 88,000 air passenger complaints. 

Internal projections show that number could grow to more than 150,000 by 2028 — meaning years-long waits for Canadians seeking compensation the law says they are owed.