How the CTA is adapting to unprecedented and challenging times

The CTA’s 300 dedicated public servants have been working from home since mid-March to deliver results for Canadians. Despite the sudden and sustained shift to remote work, all of the CTA’s services have been maintained, thanks to the team’s professionalism.

Some facts about the processing of complaints filed by travellers:

  • Between the time the Air Passenger Protection Regulations fully came into force on December 15, 2019, and the start of the pandemic three months later, the CTA received an unprecedented number of complaints: over 11,200 in those three months alone. By comparison, 826 complaints were filed in 2015, 3,367 in 2016, 5,565 in 2017, 7,650 in 2018 and 19,392 in 2019. This is a 23-fold growth in volumes over 5 years and would be challenging for any organization.
  • Another 10,000 complaints have been submitted since the mass disruption of air travel beginning in mid-March. Of these, about 4,300 concern refunds.
  • Such huge increases in complaint volumes are unheard of for most quasi-judicial tribunals. While the CTA has received temporary funding increases from Parliament in response to this situation, it mostly had to handle these pressures through process efficiencies and long hours of hard work.
  • We typically deal with complaints in the order they’re received – and have been processing record numbers. We successfully address the overwhelming majority of complaints through informal facilitation and mediation approaches. Under 2 per cent have to go to more formal, court-like adjudication.
  • Despite the sudden and sustained shift to remote work, the CTA has been able to maintain its productivity to a level comparable to last year. We have processed over 5,000 complaints since the beginning of the pandemic.
Our commitment to Canadians is simple: we will process each complaint as quickly as possible, based on its merit, impartially and in a rigorous manner.

Related page

Air passenger protection during and beyond the pandemic (Hill Times 2020-11-16)

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