Windsor West MP Brian Masse says a bill to protect passenger rights won't make any difference at all in the short-term.
Transportation Minister Marc Garneau launched his new passenger bill of rights Tuesday.
Bumping paid passengers from flights against their will is no longer going to be allowed in Canada. The legislation follows up on Garneau's promise from last month after a United Airlines passenger was seriously injured when he was dragged from a plane in Chicago.
However, Masse — the NDP Transport Critics — calls Garneau's bill misleading. Masse says the provisions aren't actually within the bill, but rather will be handed off to bureaucrats to regulate.
Masse says the bill essentially does nothing for passengers at this point.
"Fines or penalties or restitution for that will be done through a regulatory process that was going to take quite sometime and it's going to be open again for industry consultation," says Masse. "There will be some public disclosure during that process but again, is very much a shell of a bill."
Masse says the bill lets the industry off the hook.
"It's very disappointing because it doesn't really change anything for the short term, not much for the medium term and for the long term it puts this in the hands of a faceless bureaucrat in terms of any rights versus that of elected officials, so the airline industry really gets a pass," says Masse.
Masse says the bill does nothing in the short-term and there's still some uncertainty as to whether there will be any change in the long term either.