Canada names new Transport Minister

Canada has named a new Minister of Transport in a cabinet reshuffle as the country’s airline industry continues to suffer from the effects of the global coronavirus crisis. Omar Alghabra will replace Marc Garneau, a former astronaut who had been the transport minister since 2015 and is moving on to become the country’s minister of foreign affairs. Alghabra was a member of the Canadian parliament from 2006-2008 and was reelected in 2015. The National Airlines Council of Canada (NACC), which represents the country’s most major carriers, welcomes the new minister, but adds that Canada’s aviation industry is “in crisis” after the global health pandemic precipitated strict travel restrictions that remain in force. “We are losing connectivity and service to communities across Canada at a rate that threatens to unwind billions of dollars in investment made over the past ten years that has supported hundreds of thousands of jobs and driven a level of connectivity and service that underpinned economic growth in every region of Canada,” says Mike McNaney, the lobby group’s CE.<br/>