MKO grand chief demands public apology from Perimeter after weeks of delayed, cancelled flights

The head of northern Manitoba chiefs says it's time an airline apologizes to travellers after weeks of delays and cancelled flights.

Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak Grand Chief Sheila North Wilson met with representatives of Perimeter Aviation on Monday.

"I'm trying to be patient with the company but it's hard to be patient when you have people, elders, sitting in airports for 12 hours without access to good, healthy food for them and their safety and comfort is at risk all the time," she said. "That's very problematic."

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North Wilson said that Perimeter Aviation said it was the airline's errors, not weather, that contributed to the delays and cancellations. North Wilson said she is still not satisfied with the ongoing service.

"What we got was apologies and a little bit of explanation of what happened and I can understand that, but at the same time we are still dumbfounded as to how the mistakes happened in the first place," she said.

In just one community in November, 112 people either missed their medical appointments or had them cancelled because of the airline, North Wilson said. In the same community in the first nine days of December, there were 67 more missed appointments.

"We have 30 communities," North Wilson said.

Perimeter regularly flies to Berens River, Brochet, Cross Lake, Garden Hill, God's River, God's Lake, Norway House, Red Sucker Lake, Shamattawa, St. Theresa Point, Thompson, Wasagamack and other Manitoba communities, as well a a few locations in northwestern Ontario. 

Last month the airline apologized to customers after "weather cancellations" caused a backlog. At the time, Perimeter released a statement that it voluntarily decided to conduct thorough investigations on its fleet. Transport Canada said it was inspecting Perimeter Aviation's operations "as part of our regularly scheduled oversight."

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Last week, dozens of people were stranded in Winnipeg after their flights home were delayed or cancelled. Other passengers were stuck on various First Nations.

"They need to come up with a quality assurance statement ... and even [a] commitment to offer a better, more reliable service that our people can rely on to say that they are being taken care of," North Wilson said.

"I think they need to apologize to our people publicly and they need to communicate better on what their plans are and what their intentions are for service."

North Wilson added she'll continue to meet with the airline.