BNN: " Newly revealed correspondence between the federal government and the Canadian Transportation Agency (CTA) at the start of the pandemic is raising renewed questions around the regulator's independence.
"The unredacted emails show CTA chairman Scott Streiner, Transport Canada deputy minister Michael Keenan and then-transport minister Marc Garneau's chief of staff Marc Roy spoke in late March 2020 about an upcoming statement on refunds.
"Days later, the CTA posted the “Statement on Vouchers'' establishing that airlines could generally issue flight credits or vouchers to customers whose flights had been cancelled due to the pandemic, instead of reimbursing them.
"Section 39 of the CTA's code of conduct states that “members shall not communicate with political actors or officials of other federal departments and agencies ... regarding a matter that is, was, or could be before the agency.'' Roy, who no longer works as a federal staffer, declined to comment."