Unionized workers and their allies held a rally against the federal government’s airport privatization plans at Vancouver International Airport Saturday afternoon. Dozens of people waved flags, held signs and listened to speeches from union leaders and NDP MP Don Davies at the event. “We all know that private investors have a bottom line for profits,” said Sharon DeSousa, national president of the Public Service Alliance of Canada. “Public services should not be used for profit.” Barry Tchir, the national president of the Union of Canadian Transportation Employees, had a similar message. “This system works,” he said. “The not-for-profit model that they use is a successful model. YVR wins awards for the stuff that they do and the way they manage this airport. So why are we risking changing that into a private investor model where they’re looking at 15-to-20-per-cent returns on investment?” The federal government has not shared concrete plans for inviting private investment in the country’s four largest airports—Toronto–Pearson, Montreal–Trudeau, Calgary and Vancouver. Prime Minister Mark Carney announced the initiative at his “Canada Investment Summit” in Toronto in September, promising that the government would “retain ownership of the underlying land and assets,” while selling “a concession” that would bring in “new capital and expertise.” Carney said the government would follow “best practice” from other countries, and insisted that private investment would result in a “better passenger experience” and reinvestment of capital into infrastructure. Currently, Canada’s airports are federally owned and run by local non-profit airport authorities. “YVR is run very efficiently,” said Tchir, who has worked at the Vancouver airport for more than 20 years. “Any profits that are made here at the airport in the model that they have running go back into the infrastructure of the building, the infrastructure of the airport itself and into the community.” He said one of the goals of Saturday’s protest was to push the government to provide more details on its plans, such as where outside investment would come from.
