Canadian Transport Complaints
Canadian Transportation Agency handles accessible travel complaints
The Canadian Transportation Agency regulates air, passenger rail, and interprovincial ferry services and terminals in Canada. They deal with accessibility complaints.
The Canadian Transportation Agency website includes an Accessibility Complaint Guide.
The website says:
"Have you experienced any of these problems?
- Do you face obstacles when you travel?
- Have you been refused transportation services because you have a disability?
- Have you been refused necessary assistance?
- Is travel information unavailable to you as a result of your disability?
- Do you feel that you have been treated in a way that constitutes an obstacle to your mobility as a result of your disability?
- Have you encountered physical barriers to mobility in terminals, stations or vehicles?
The Canadian Transportation Agency can help you.
Our job is to make sure that undue obstacles to the mobility of persons with disabilities are removed."
The CTA regulates everything that the Canada Transportation Act covers, including
- air carriers and airports
- passenger rail carriers and stations
- interprovincial ferry services and their terminals.
The Agency has a form for complaints. If there is a problem between a passenger with a disability and an airline, for example, the passenger and the airline should try to resolve it on the spot so the passenger may continue the journey.
In cases where this cannot be accomplished, the passenger has the right to complain to the Agency.
Quoting directly from the CTA website about how to make a complaint as a disabled traveller:
"Here are some suggestions which may be helpful if you encounter an obstacle when travelling.
"When you experience a problem, explain what you need to the person or people responsible for providing the service. Tell them what kind of assistance you require. If you are not satisfied, take the first opportunity to write, record, or tell a friend the details of what happened. If you incur expenses as a result of a problem, keep your receipts.
"Contact the management of the transportation service provider and try to resolve the problem.
"If your efforts are not successful, contact the Canadian Transportation Agency and make a complaint.
"How can you complain to the Agency?
"You are able to make your complaint in a number of ways:
"You may fill out the form provided in this guide and send it to the Agency.
"You can also submit a complaint in braille or on audio cassette or computer disk.
"You can use our online complaint form.
"People filing complaints should include a description of the problem, the name of the transportation service provider and all other related information as specified on the enclosed form.
"It is very important that you provide as much detailed information as you can about the incident and any resulting effects or damages. This will assist the Agency in its investigation." (End of quote)
It is also important that you make your complaint to the Agency promptly. If you have incurred extra expenses, keep the receipts for your expenses and make a claim for compensation with your complaint.
The CTA has the authority to investigate complaints and to make decisions about how they should be resolved, if the parties cannot come to an agreement.
Decisions of the CTA can be found online by clicking "Rulings" on the CTA's website. The Rulings are searchable by category. One of the categories is "Accessible Transportation". If you do not search by category, you will find the accessibility complaints mixed up with the rulings on many other transportation issues.
If you want to search by year, use the year as a keyword in the search form on the website. If you have made a complaint, it will have a number. Using that number, you can track the status of your complaint using the Case Status button on the "Complaints" page.
