As Air Canada pilot strike looms, Ottawa urges to ‘get the deal done’

As Air Canada pilots prepare for a potential strike next week, the federal labour minister said there is “no reason” for the national carrier and union to not reach a collective agreement and that negotiations are seeing progress.

Either Air Canada or the Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA), which represents 5,200 Air Canada pilots, could issue a 72-hour lockout or strike notice unless a settlement is reached by Sunday.

The 72-hour shutdown notice period could begin anytime after midnight on Sunday, with operations expected to come to a complete halt by Wednesday, Sept. 18. Air Canada has said it will begin cancelling flights and operations as soon as this Friday.

Speaking to reporters at the Liberal caucus retreat in Nanaimo, B.C., on Wednesday, Labour Minister Steve MacKinnon said that as both parties remain at the table, there are “significant issues still to be resolved,” but there is “forward momentum.”

He urged both sides to “knuckle down and get the deal done.”

“There is momentum, they are solving issues and there’s no reason for these parties not to be able to achieve a deal.”

Speaking at a press conference earlier in Ottawa on Wednesday, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre called for a “fair deal” and for Air Canada to negotiate in “good faith” with the union workers.

“I would call on Air Canada to negotiate in good faith with the pilots,” Poilievre said.

“We’re not going to support preempting those negotiations. We stand with the pilots and their right to fight for a fair deal, good wages.”

Poilievre blamed the now defunct Liberal-NDP supply-and-confidence agreement for Canadian pilots making less money than their American counterparts.

“I don’t understand why it is that Canadian pilots are paid so much worse than