e-2623 (Government services and administration)

Petition to the Government of Canada

• We as Canadians are thankful to the Canadian government who coordinated the extraordinary task of the repatriation operation to bring Canadians home from the many countries in which they were and in some cases continue to be stranded;
• The purpose of this petition is to grieve the cost of the repatriation flights which have created financial hardship for thousands of Canadians;
• The World Health Organization (WHO) pandemic announcement caused governments across the world to react and in some instances entire countries were placed under government-ordered lockdowns;
• The lockdowns resulted in thousands of Canadians being stranded across the world while on their spring break holidays;
• Canadians paid 4-6 times more than they should have, for one-way repatriation flights to return to Canada;
• Most Canadians were travelling abroad with families so the cost of paying for multiple flights was substantial and extremely difficult;
• The unforeseen and unreasonable cost of these repatriation flights has put thousands of Canadians in thousands of dollars of debt; and
• This debt is no fault of their own and it has come at a time when many Canadians are already facing financial hardship due to job losses, closure of businesses, etc due to the COVID-19 pandemic.