After months and months of travel discontent across Canada, the Canadian government today said it will spend $1.8 billion over five years to improve airport operations and passenger screening, and to address a backlog of airline complaints to the Canadian Transportation Agency (CTA). Canadian Press reports the Trudeau government also is “proposing to strengthen the rules around compensation for Canadians whose travel plans are disrupted, and to give the CTA more authority to resolve passenger complaints.” That will no doubt play well with consumers who were angered by flight delays and cancellations over the Christmas holidays, but probably not with Read more
Canada
He’s a top chef that has worked with some of the biggest names in North American cooking. He’s put his own touches on fancy, $100 dishes served up in some of the finest hotels in Canada and the United States. But Chef Paul Shewchuk doesn’t get noticed by the average Joe until a major league ballplayer posts a blog saying the man makes amazing chicken tenders. “I honestly don’t know how this happened,” Shewchuk says as he chats with a journalist at the posh Ritz-Carlton Toronto, where he carries the title Executive Chef. “This blog went up in 2018 or Read more
A new report by the Auditor General of Canada says nearly two-out-of-three disabled people in Canada still face barriers when it comes to travel. The report, issued this week, says that VIA Rail, the Canadian Air Transport Security Authority, and the Canadian Transportation Agency have taken steps to improving transportation accessibility by identifying, reducing, and preventing some of the barriers faced by persons with disabilities. “But more needs to be done. In 2019 and 2020, nearly two thirds of the 2.2 million persons with disabilities who travelled on planes, trains, and other federally regulated modes of transportation faced a barrier.” Read more
Porter Airlines has launched three new routes between Ottawa International Airport and Boston, New York-Newark and Thunder Bay today, providing convenient travel links for the region. The new routes are part of Porter’s broader expansion plan in Ottawa and its commitment to the region, including new maintenance hangars that are currently under construction at YOW. These will serve as a primary maintenance facility for the airline’s new E195-E2 fleet. Porter is the only airline providing year-round daily direct flights to Boston and Thunder Bay from Ottawa. “This builds on our already extensive network in Eastern Canada and substantially increases the Read more
Brits are devouring a television show that features people racing across Canada, and Canadian tourism officials hope it will boost British visits to the country. An Amazing Race-style show called “Race Across the World” has contestants dashing from Haida Gwaii, the remote set of islands north of Vancouver Island, to St. John’s. But entirely by land or water; no air planes. The show is getting lots of attention, and a story in The Guardian says Canadian tourism officials are keeping a close eye. Great Britain is Canada’s number one overseas (not international, that’s the U.S.) market for visitors, but numbers Read more
