Adds quote from finance minister, background, particulars O
Adds quote from finance minister, background, particulars
OTTAWA, Oct 20 (Reuters) – The Canadian authorities could be very conscious of the challenges going through airways and the journey sector throughout the coronavirus pandemic and is engaged on doable help, Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland stated on Tuesday.
Freeland stated she had spoken to the heads of Canada’s main airways and unions final week however didn’t give particulars. Carriers and journey business executives have repeatedly urged Ottawa for help as passenger numbers hunch.
“We’re clearly conscious of the actual challenges that the journey sector, the airways are going through proper now,” she instructed a information convention when requested about an help package deal.
“It is positively a difficulty we’re intently and dealing on,” she stated.
Airways have already acquired greater than C$1 billion ($763 million) from a wage subsidy program that Ottawa launched to assist companies cope with the pandemic, she stated.
Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Dominic LeBlanc instructed CTV on Sunday that Ottawa may take a stake in main airways corresponding to Air Canada AC.TO and WestJet Airways. Each carriers have suspended dozens of routes.
The Canadian department of the Worldwide Affiliation of Machinists and Aerospace Employees on Tuesday urged Freeland to contemplate partially or totally nationalizing Air Canada.
Earlier this month main labor unions stated the aviation sector would undergo everlasting harm until Ottawa supplied a C$7 billion 10-year low-interest mortgage to offset the consequences of the pandemic.
($1=1.3113 Canadian {dollars})
(Reporting by David Ljunggren, Modifying by Franklin Paul and Grant McCool)
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