PACC Committee News Release

For immediate release

NEWS RELEASE

TRANSPORT CANADA NEEDS TO CLARIFY ITS ROLE AS LANDLORD AND OVERSEER OF THE NATION’S AIRPORTS.

OTTAWA – May 22, 2002 - Today, Mr. John Williams, MP, and Chair of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Public Accounts, tabled the Committee’s 21^st Report in the House of Commons.

The 26 airports in the National Airports System (NAS) are vital to Canada’s economy and collectively handle more than 90 percent of the country’s air passenger traffic. Between 1992 and 1999 the federal government transferred the management and operations of twenty-two of these airports to not-for-profit organizations (airport authorities) created specifically to run and develop them. As of November 2001, one airport remained to be transferred. The federal government retains ownership of the transferred airports and charges rent to the airport authorities who have been granted leases of 60 years with an option to renew for an additional 20 years.

Transport Canada acts as landlord and overseer of the airports in the NAS. The Department also is charged with ensuring the viability of the system and renegotiating airport leases. However, the Auditor General found that the Department was not performing some crucial aspects of its new roles and that its method of calculating the worth of the airports lacked rigour.

In its Report, the Committee made ten recommendations intended to help the Department improve its oversight of the NAS and its airports and to provide more detailed information on the performance of its new roles to Parliament.

For more information please contact Mr. Richard Rumas, Clerk of the Standing Committee on Public Accounts - Telephone:  (613) 996-1664 and  Fax:  996-1962.

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