Excuses and blame

Watching the coverage of the Parliamentary Hearing on Christmas travel chaos and it's a litany of excuses and blaming everyone but themselves for the mess.  The CEOs of all major airports are saying inaccurate weather forecasts, extreme weather, regulations and staff shortages were the reasons that flights were grounded and planes delayed.

"We're sorry," they all said.  Sorry!  You people get paid hundreds of thousands and you couldn't plan for snow and increased passenger load at Christmas, post-Covid, when it snows, in Canada?!  And you ran out of de-icing fluid and fuel!?

Here's a bulletin: It snows in Canada in winter -- often a lot.  Maybe they were counting on global warming, but come on!  Tamara Vrooman, CEO of Vancouver, has a background in finance.  Period the end.  And as for Deborah Flint, CEO in Toronto, she came from Los Angeles, where they don't have snow.  But hey, they both ticked all the Affirmative Action boxes for gender and race, so they got the jobs.  

Brian and I spent the night sleeping on the floor in Regina -- me in my $6K mink coat -- when we were diverted.  Great planning, ladies!  Here they are, Toronto and Vancouver CEOs.  They both look about 12, but again, AA worked its magic.

As for the Canadian Transportation Agency and its toothless 'Bill of Passenger Rights', it too is headed by an under-qualified woman, France Pégeot.  The press release announcing her appointment actually says she was appointed under the government's "diversity and inclusion" program.  It actually says that!  The agency's only purpose is to compensate passengers for lost luggage and delayed or cancelled flights, but good luck trying to access that process and get compensation.  Right now, the agency has no idea the outcome of 97% of all complaints lodged.  Ninety-seven percent!!!!!  How can that be tolerated??!! 

They should adopt the European model.  There, all the agency does is look up the flight number and if it had been delayed or cancelled, they send the complainant a cheque.  That's it, case closed.  Currently, the CTA has a backlog of 33,000 complaints which it investigates one-by-one!  Any chance that'll get cleaned up?  I'd say fat.  And who are the members of the agency?  Eight women and two men.  I rest my case.

 

I am not impressed when under-qualified women get these jobs because it tars all of us who share the gender -- especially those of us who went to the barricades in the late sixties to be sure qualified women got a chance over less-qualified men.  It's not supposed to be less qualified women getting the job over more-qualified men, but that's what the whole movement has morphed into.