South Baffin MLA Schell doesn’t like Jazz

South Baffin MLA Fred Schell is no fan of Air Canada Jazz’s planned Ottawa-Iqaluit route.

In the assembly Thursday, Schell lambasted Canada’s biggest airline, saying they won’t serve smaller communities, donate to local organizations and will damage Northern airlines.

“I believe that Air Canada [Jazz] is not a fair competitor,” Schell told the legislature Thursday. “It’s a dangerous and unwelcome predator.”

“The arrival of Air Canada Jazz to the capital city of Iqaluit might help overpaid bureaucrats to enjoy cheaper tickets to Ottawa as they head out to conferences or all-inclusive vacations to the Carribean, but our smaller communities and their residents will not benefit at all.”

Schell called on the Government of Nunavut to implement a policy barring civil servants from travelling on the Air Canada Jazz flight once it begins operation in March, 2010.

In Question Period, Schell called on finance minister Keith Peterson to change the GN’s travel policies to ban government employees from the new route.

But Peterson wouldn’t commit to any changes to the GN’s financial administration manual, which governs employee travel. He said the manual is under a review that’s scheduled to be complete “sometime in 2010.”