{December 23, 2005} VICTORIA – Clients of C3 Leisure Limited (C3 Holidays) will receive a full refund of their claims from the Judicial Trustee, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), for travel services they purchased and did not receive as a result of the bankruptcy of C3 Holidays.

Canada 3000 Airlines (C3 Airlines) ceased flight operations on November 9, 2001 and subsequently filed for bankruptcy, together with related companies, such as C3 Holidays, and Holiday Travel Consultants Ltd. (C3 Tickets). C3 Holidays was required to put into trust monies received from clients and PricewaterhouseCoopers was appointed as Judicial Trustee for the trust funds.

The Judicial Trustee appeared in Supreme Court of BC on December 9, 2005 and received approval of a plan to provide a final payment to the C3 Holidays clients. The Court had previously authorized interim payments of 50 cents on the dollar. The latest approval represents full recovery, without interest, to the C3 Holiday clients. PwC will send final payments to clients of C3 Holidays by the end of 2005.

The Business Practices & Consumer Protection Authority (BPCPA) advises that the refunds now being provided by PwC to clients of C3 Holidays is the full amount of compensation to which they are entitled and eliminates the eligibility of clients of C3 Holidays for a refund from the BC Travel Assurance Fund (TAF).  As a result, all claims filed separately with the TAF are deemed to have been withdrawn. No further action will be taken by the BPCPA.

C3 Airlines and C3 Tickets did not hold client funds in trust accounts. Consequently, the Judicial Trustee is unable to provide refunds to these clients.  However, clients of C3 Airlines and C3 Tickets may be eligible to claim compensation from the BC Travel Assurance Fund (TAF) for travel services they paid for but did not receive.

The Travel Assurance Fund is administered by the BPCPA. It is totally funded from contributions from licensed BC travel agents and wholesalers and covers consumers who have booked through a travel agent licensed in British Columbia. In order to make a claim from the fund, consumers must have been BC residents at the time of the Canada 3000 bankruptcy.

The BPCPA will begin to process claims that have been received from clients of C3 Airlines and C3 Tickets. Clients of either of these two companies who were BC residents at the time of the Canada 3000 failure and who did not receive the contracted travel services for which they paid and who have not submitted a signed claim form to the TAF should do so immediately. Claim forms are available at www.bpcpa.ca.

If clients did submit a claim and subsequently received compensation from another source, they are asked to notify the BPCPA to update their claim status. Please contact the Travel Assurance Fund at 1 888 564-9963.

The BPCPA will be contacting clients of C3 Airlines and C3 Tickets early in 2006 to advise them about the status of their claims.

Some losses resulting from the failure of C3 Airlines and C3 Tickets may not be eligible for reimbursement because they may relate to travel outside of eligible dates or because the funds received from the consumer had not been remitted by the travel agent to C3 Airlines.

Claims are limited to the amount of money actually paid by a consumer to a BC licensed travel agent for the travel service not provided and where no refund or compensation from any other source may have been received. Additional expenses, such as alternative air transportation, alternative hotel accommodation, lost wages, etc., are not covered. Insurance premiums are not a travel service and are not covered and compensation is limited to consumers, not businesses.

For more information, please visit the BPCPA website at www.bpcpa.ca to view the Frequently Asked Questions on Canada 3000.