Canada’s Transport Minister speaks out on ‘unacceptable issues’ that continue to cause major delays at Canadian airports after footage surfaced on social media showing hundreds of bags stacked up at Pearson International Airport .

The Greater Toronto Airports Authority, which operates Pearson, told CP24 on Tuesday that a number of issues over the past few days have resulted in “issues with baggage,” including “flight delays and cancellations, staff shortages and temporary mechanical disruptions with the baggage system. .”

So far, dozens of people have spoken out about their luggage being lost at Pearson, including a woman who told CP24 her bag was lost once on the way to Phoenix and then again on the way back. in Toronto, resulting in a “frustrating suitcase scavenger hunt.” which ultimately proved unsuccessful.

Many images were also shared on social media showing huge piles of luggage in the baggage claim area at Pearson, which travelers had to wade through in the hope of finding their missing bags.

“What we are seeing today is that while many of these issues from the Canadian Air Transport Security Authority and the Canadian Border Security Agency have improved significantly, we continue to see delays, cancellations and baggage problems,” Transport Minister Omar Alghabra told reporters in an independent announcement in the GTA on Wednesday. “I had conversations with the four largest airports and the two largest airlines on Thursday and I will have follow-up conversations with them soon. They know they need to add more resources and they are working on it and we are offering our support to solve these problems.But they are unacceptable problems.

Pearson has been plagued with delays for months amid increased demand and staff shortages.

Alghabra said that at this point the federal government has done everything in its power to address the problems at airports, including increasing staff at customs and security checkpoints.

He said his government was also considering “possibly extending the suspension” of random COVID-19 testing, which was due to be lifted on July 1.

This, he said, is because the logistics of moving the tests offsite are taking longer than expected.

“What we’re seeing is an increase in demand for air travel beyond what anyone expected and that’s honestly good news. But the increase in demand is outstripping the capacity of airlines and airports to bolster the resources they need to deal with this increase,” he said. “So we’re working with airlines and airports to make sure that the necessary resources, that the adjustments necessary schedules are taken into account, because we also see extreme peaks at certain times of the day.

Tory says he will speak with Air Canada about the issues

Many of the baggage issues at Pearson allegedly involved Air Canada flights.

In a statement provided to CP24 on Tuesday, Air Canada said “avoiding baggage delays is a top priority” because they are “disruptive and inconvenient” for customers and result in additional costs that the airline must ultimately bear.

But they said that with the “well-documented problems” plaguing airports and leading to last-minute flight cancellations, there are simply more cases of delayed baggage.

“I think the overall picture is better today at the airport than it was a few weeks ago and I think there is every reason to believe that progress will continue,” said the Toronto Mayor John Tory to reporters at a press conference on Wednesday. problems at Pearson. “I am not personally familiar with the precise way in which baggage is handled, but certainly from my limited knowledge, it seems to me that most of the responsibility lies with the airlines, so I will, undertake in the light of what happened to be in contact with Air Canada and find out from their point of view what the problem is, what they are doing to solve their part of the problem and if they believe that governments in the broadest sense can be helpful in making things work better so that those baggage issues don’t arise.