Flying for a Cause: The Story of Hope Air’s Life-Changing Mission

In this episode of The Open Skies Podcast, host Chris Glass sits down with Mark Rubinstein, Chief Hope Officer of Hope Air, to discuss the organization’s incredible mission: ensuring that all Canadians, regardless of financial means or geographic location, have access to essential medical care. With a network of commercial airline partners and volunteer pilots, Hope Air provides free flights, accommodations, and travel support for those who would otherwise face insurmountable barriers to receiving medical treatment.

Mark shares the inspiring history of Hope Air, from its humble beginnings in 1986 with just 15 flights to now facilitating over 45,000 travel arrangements annually. He also delves into the challenges of navigating the COVID-19 pandemic, the importance of partnerships with airlines like WestJet and Porter, and the growing demand for services as healthcare access disparities widen. This is an eye-opening conversation about the unseen side of air travel—the life-saving journeys happening every day, thanks to the generosity of donors, volunteers, and the aviation industry.

Transcript

Chris Glass: 0:00

Hi everybody and welcome back to another episode of the Open Skies podcast. I am very excited and very honored to be here at the head office for Hope Air and with my guest, mark Mark. Welcome to the pod.

Mark Rubinstein: 0:12

Thank you so much. It's great to be here.

Chris Glass: 0:14

So, Mark, let's start by introducing yourself to our listeners and giving us a little bit about your history here.

Mark Rubinstein: 0:22

Sure? Well, my name is Mark Rubinstein. I'm the chief hope officer for Hope Air. People ask me why hope officer? And the mission of our charity is to help people who are in financial need, who live in rural, remote, underserved communities and have to travel long distance to reach medical specialty care. So, in a sense, we're providing hope to people who are hopeless. So when I joined Hope Air at the beginning of 2020, I thought chief hope officer was an appropriate title, but prior to that, I had spent most of my private sector career in media television, sports, a little bit of technology and then found myself coming to this incredible charity in 2020.

Chris Glass: 1:09

So that's a bit of a journey coming from TV and the private sector. What made you land on Hopare?

Mark Rubinstein: 1:17

I was very interested in social issues. I was very interested in what was going on in our country regarding all kinds of challenges, whether it's food insecurity, homelessness, barriers to education, and I've always had this real focus on healthcare and the fact that, while we talk about universal healthcare, I've known for many, many, many years what a struggle and challenge it can be for people to actually get to the places where they have to be diagnosed and treated.

Chris Glass: 1:47

Especially in such a large country. Right Huge country. Such a logistical challenge with how spread out everything is.

Mark Rubinstein: 1:57

Yeah, and you know, in 2019, I was doing consulting, I had sort of retired from private sector. I was really focused on corporations being a force for good how can corporations both do well by doing good? And I got in a call about there's this charity called Hope Air. Is that something that you'd ever consider taking on? And I said I don't even know what Hope Air is. And so I searched it and I thought, wow, what an incredible charity that I'd never heard of.

Mark Rubinstein: 2:30

And then I met the board of directors and I was so taken by their commitment to what this charity stands for and thinking about the founding of this charity in 1986, where, at that time, they had done like 15 flights A very humble beginning, my Lord and then, 38 years later, when I joined, they were at 12,000 flights. And the more that I got, the more that I read about it, the more that I talked to people, the more that I studied it, the more I realized like this is just an incredible, incredible charity with a really important mission, right. So I went home to my wife that night and I said this is either going to be the best idea or the stupidest idea that I've ever undertaken.

Chris Glass: 3:17

So you kind of nibbled around the edges there.

Mark Rubinstein: 3:20

If you'd like to let me know how everything started here at Hope Air, back to the 80s- so Hope Air was founded by Ginny Bradshaw and Joan Rogers, two incredible women who were working in the healthcare industry, and they were noticing that patients were coming by bus from St John's, newfoundland, to Toronto, ontario, for cancer treatment at Princess Margaret Hospital. Now that's a 36-hour bus ride one way.

Chris Glass: 3:48

So for somebody who's healthy, a 36-hour bus ride is undertaking.

Mark Rubinstein: 3:53

So they asked themselves why would somebody be taking a 36-hour bus ride one way and then they have to go back when they're sick? Why was that? And they realized that then as now, they couldn't afford the cost of an air flight. So that was the genesis that gave birth to Hope Air, and that's when they decided there's no charity doing this across the country and there has to be an organization that's going to help people who are in financial need and sick and then have to travel long distance for any kind of medical specialty treatment.

Chris Glass: 4:29

Right, wow. And so they started with 15 flights that first year, as you said.

Mark Rubinstein: 4:35

Right.

Chris Glass: 4:37

And how did it grow over?

Mark Rubinstein: 4:38

time, you know, it became a very sort of word of mouth thing. We were fortunate that the airline industry really adopted Hope Air, you know, for example, WestJet. We were the first charity that WestJet ever selected to be a beneficiary for some of their good work to help us with you know vouchers to help get patients traveling to hospital.

Mark Rubinstein: 5:11

And so the charity, year over year over year, just kind of grew and grew and grew. And by the time that, just before I arrived 2019, the charity had hit the high water mark, which was about 12,000 flights at that time. And then, of course, the pandemic hit.

Chris Glass: 5:29

Yes, which created such stress for everybody, and when you're supported by the airline industry, that must have had just a devastating effect.

Mark Rubinstein: 5:38

It was a really challenging time, I think for a few reasons. First of all, as you said, the airline industry was really challenged. There were routes that had to be suspended, some regional carriers were grounded for some period of time. During the crisis, hospitals were struggling with dealing with COVID patients, and so there were huge wait lists in most provinces across the country for people whose appointments for surgery or advanced diagnostics were just delayed Hundreds of thousands of people in many, many provinces. And then, thirdly, people were afraid to travel because nobody knew am I going to get sick if I go and you know, if I go and travel?

Mark Rubinstein: 6:22

so I joined Hope Air in March I think March 5th 2020 the pandemic was declared, I think March 20th right and so I sat there with like my head in my hands, thinking oh my lord, how can this journey do its work if hospitals won't take patients right? Airlines were struggling to maintain commercial service and many routes and people were afraid to travel.

Chris Glass: 6:49

Right. So that's a heck of an orientation. So, less than three weeks on the job, global pandemic is declared, everything's shutting down. What was the next step for Hope Air then? What was the changes that were necessary to survive?

Mark Rubinstein: 7:08

Well, you know, there was a lot of discussion and we have an incredible board of directors and nobody had a game plan, either in the private sector or in the charitable sector. Nobody knew really what the impact of COVID was, nobody knew how long it would last. Nobody knew what the effects of COVID was. Nobody knew how long it would last. Nobody knew what the effects would be after COVID. So we sat there and had lots of long conversations and we just decided ultimately, we're just going to stay the course, and part of that meant we're not going to lay off staff. We're going to continue to support those patients that can get an appointment, find ways to get them on a commercial aircraft or a volunteer flight and, magically, at the end of 2020, when we looked up, we had delivered 5,000 travel arrangements, or 6,000 travel arrangements which had, we delivered one flight, it would have been a miracle sitting there in March.

Mark Rubinstein: 8:08

So it's amazing and that replicated itself in 2021, where we were still in the throes of the pandemic, so we weren't smarter than anybody else. But the people who work at Hope Air are just so committed to the mission of the charity that we would do anything that we could to get a patient to care and really our volunteer pilots stepped up in a big way. Right was a volunteer pilot flying in a small four-seat, six-seat aircraft pick up the patient, bring them to care, wait for them and then bring them home.

Chris Glass: 8:50

So you've hit on a couple of things that I want to talk about. One of the things that we really try to do here at Open Skies is to kind of expose the hidden side of air travel and the aviation space Logistically. What goes into getting a patient from coming in the door hearing about Hope Air to actually getting the care they need and home? I know this isn't a huge organization either, so walk me through the logistics of that what has to happen and who is involved.

Mark Rubinstein: 9:25

Yeah, so we have a dedicated client care team.

Mark Rubinstein: 9:28

It's quite a small team, less than 10 people, and just to put that in perspective, hope Air in 2024 is projected to deliver over 13,500 flights.

Mark Rubinstein: 9:40

Wow, plus free accommodations in hotels for patients who need it, plus free Uber and taxi rides from a rival airport to hospital and back. So you have this small team that are managing literally tens of thousands of travel arrangements. But the way the process works is a patient applies either online or they call us and we take their application. They provide us confirmation of their medical appointment and, when they need to travel, our team then look at the various airline routes and carriers that can conveniently get the patient from where they live to a distant city where they have to go for diagnosis and treatment. Book that for them. Manage any changes that might happen. If their hospital appointment changes or if there's a change in an airline travel schedule, they have to manage those changes. Book their hotel, give them an Uber voucher, give them a meal voucher, so when they stay in hotel they get meal support. And so we talk about it, as they're basically holding the hand of a patient from the moment they leave their house to the moment they get home.

Chris Glass: 10:56

Wow, that must be so fulfilling for your client care team.

Mark Rubinstein: 11:02

It's unbelievable. A few of us have the privilege of traveling across the country. We do events, we have a chance to meet patients where they are really, right across in every province, and I've had patients, you know, break down and cry in my arms because they talk to me about like who are these people who work in your clinic? They're like angels, so like gifts from God. These are their words, not my words, and you know so. It's such a privilege to be able to make a difference at a time in people's lives where they're the most vulnerable. Yeah, so many of our patients are what we would call vulnerable people. Could be children, single parents, could be seniors, where people are sick, where people are sick, they're scared, they know they have to travel for medical care. That could, you know, in many cases save their life. Many people don't travel outside of their home communities. Often.

Chris Glass: 12:02

Some have never, especially in remote areas. Oh my Lord, very difficult yeah.

Mark Rubinstein: 12:07

So flying into Vancouver or Calgary or, you know, toronto or Montreal, and you arrive and you know, for those of us who travel, it's no big deal, but it's bewildering. How do I get from where I arrive to the hospital? Where is the hospital? Where do I stay if I have to stay overnight as part of my care?

Chris Glass: 12:27

Right.

Mark Rubinstein: 12:28

These are things we take for granted, but for people who are traveling from rural areas, remote areas, underserved areas that's why I say Hope Air is like a navigator. We're holding the hand of that patient to take almost all of the stress out of travel so you can focus on what matters most, which, of course, is your health.

Chris Glass: 12:49

Your health and your care you think of when you travel for vacation. It's difficult, the logistics are hard, when you're traveling for good reasons. The logistics are hard when you're focusing on care and you're focusing on, in many cases, the fight for your life. The last thing you're thinking about is Ubers and flight schedules and that. So what an amazing opportunity to help people.

Mark Rubinstein: 13:11

Yeah, it's incredible and you know, I always think about the fact that when I'm traveling, if I'm in an airport or if I'm on an airline and you know, you look around who's on this aircraft, right? So, as you just said, chris, like you've got business people, you've got families going on a holiday, maybe people going to see family members out of province, but chances are, on any given day, on any given flight, there are people traveling for health care and medical care and on any given day someone's flying because of the support of Hope Air and all of the partners that allow us to make that happen.

Chris Glass: 13:48

So I'm going to get to the partners in a sec, because I think that's a fascinating part of this. But you talked about your volunteer pilot program and this just absolutely captivates me because commercial travel is one thing, but walk me through what your volunteer pilot program is.

Mark Rubinstein: 14:03

So volunteer pilots are accredited pilots. Often these are pilots who have flown for large international or national airline carriers. So ex-WestJet pilots, ex-air Canada pilots some who have flown for international airlines and they typically have retired from commercial service, but they obviously have a passion and love for flying. They would often own their own four seat or six seat small aircraft and many are looking for a way to give back. So when people find out about, okay, I have a passion for aviation, I have a passion for flying, and now I can combine that with actually going to make a difference in someone's life, actually save someone's life there is nothing more fulfilling. So in 2024, we have approximately 40 volunteer pilots. The majority of them are located either in British Columbia or Ontario and they will fly to many communities where there's no commercial service, or they'll fly to communities where there is commercial service but patients are immunocompromised. Yeah, and having a private flight Going through the airport is a risk in itself.

Chris Glass: 15:21

Can be a real challenge, right.

Mark Rubinstein: 15:23

So you'll never meet like a greater group of humanitarians.

Mark Rubinstein: 15:27

I mean honestly, I just people who spend their whole day like we're here in Toronto today. So think about flying from Toronto to Manitoulin Island, where there is no commercial airline service. They will fly there, they will wait for the patient, they'll pick up the patient often an escort of the patient. They'll fly, let's say, to Toronto where it's a mother and a child, the child's going to SickKids Hospital and that mother and child are here in Toronto all day and then they'll either fly them home that night or first thing the next day. They'll then fly them. So it's really an incredible experience for pilots. It's also an incredible experience for patients, because I've talked to parents whose children have flown on the Hope Air Volunteer Pilot Program and when that child gets into that plane and they put on the headset because they're allowed to put on the headset, and now they're hearing air traffic control instructions and they're hearing the pilot talk For the length of that flight an hour, an hour and a half, maybe two hours they've totally forgotten about their health issues.

Chris Glass: 16:43

Right, they get to be a kid again and be an aviator.

Mark Rubinstein: 16:48

And they'll never forget that experience. And I've met many families and I've met many adults as well who just talk about the kindness and the compassion of these volunteers, who are volunteering their time and volunteering their aircraft to make a difference in people's lives. It's really a remarkable story.

Chris Glass: 17:09

It's really a remarkable story. So our listener base is made up of mostly aviation professionals flight attendants, pilots, airport staff, ceos, that kind of thing. For the pilots listening who own their own aircraft, how can they get involved with Hope Air? Because I know I'm going to get questions, so I thought I'll just cover it on the outright. How can we increase your volunteer pilot service with some of our listeners?

Mark Rubinstein: 17:35

You can go to hopeairca. There's a very clear navigation for applications for the volunteer pilot program. Obviously, you have to be accredited. Accredited, and especially when we're talking about flying patients to healthcare.

Chris Glass: 17:48

Right.

Mark Rubinstein: 17:48

But it's a relatively straightforward process and then we receive the applications. We have a external review committee made up of other pilots who review the credentials and experience of our applicants, and then they then make a decision yes, you are accredited, you're qualified. And then we have a coordinator in our client care team who is solely responsible for managing our volunteer pilots looking at missions, as we call them. That's a great name.

Mark Rubinstein: 18:17

Yeah, lining up patients to patient travel. So encourage anyone who has interest to reach out to us, and we'd love to hear from you.

Chris Glass: 18:27

We'd love to hear from you. Well, I'm sure you're going to get some of our listeners contacting you and getting on there. I could think of three or four pilots right now who would love this idea. So talk to me a little bit about your partners, right, Because you know it's a competitive landscape. It's always changing here in Canada, but it seems like most major airlines are here to help support. So let's talk a little bit about your partners and how that's gone, the relationship you have with them.

Mark Rubinstein: 18:54

Yeah, it starts with the airline and airport industry. I think I mentioned earlier that you know we were the first charity chosen by WestJet. Westjet has been an incredible partner for us, donating free flight vouchers but also just taking care of Hope Air patients when they get on a flight, someone who may be nervous or unsettled. So they've been incredible partners promoting the work of Hope Air and were there through thick and thin, even during those COVID years where they were struggling, as all airlines were. They never backed away from their commitments to support Hope Air. We've had other airlines, like Porter Airlines, which historically came from Northern Ontario. The family that started Porter were Bush pilots, the DeLuce family.

Mark Rubinstein: 19:44

And they know what it's like in a huge province like Ontario, where, in Northern Ontario, a million people live don't have access to a family doctor, don't have access to medical specialty care.

Chris Glass: 19:56

Right.

Mark Rubinstein: 19:57

The emergency room isn't open all the time in small towns and rural communities, so they have a real appreciation for those struggles. And then you know, Air Canada and other regional airlines have supported us. Airports have been incredible partners. Yvr in Vancouver have been an amazing partner for us. If you arrive at the luggage carousel at YVR Airport in Vancouver, you'll see a massive digital sign for Hope Air featuring a Hope Air patient.

Mark Rubinstein: 20:29

Wow digital sign for Hope Air featuring a Hope Air patient, a young child who's been traveling back and forth between Kelowna and Vancouver at BC Children's Hospital for life-saving care YYC. In Calgary, we did a plane poll this year.

Chris Glass: 20:43

And from the pictures that I saw, it was raining. It was raining cats and dogs, but you know we had Didn't stop anybody from doing it.

Mark Rubinstein: 20:52

It didn't, and the CEO of WestJet, who was on the rope line with us said you know. Stop complaining, because this is nothing compared to the journey of what a patient's going through when they're trying to deal with ill health. Billy Bishop City Centre Airport here in Toronto, which is really a hub for our volunteer pilot program in.

Mark Rubinstein: 21:11

Ontario have been incredible partners. So those partners the aviation sector have really been steadfast in allowing Hope Air to grow and to thrive. But in addition, just because of the demand, we're purchasing thousands of seats on commercial airlines, we're purchasing hotel rooms, we're purchasing Uber vouchers, we're purchasing meals for people. So, in addition to the airlines and the airports who've always been there with us, we depend upon really generous corporations, individuals, foundations, and then the events that we hold in different provinces across the country. And then the last thing I would say is Hope Air is really an essential part of our healthcare system. It's really providing access to people who have barriers of distance and cost. So, most provinces not all, but most we also receive some provincial government funding in BC, in Saskatchewan, in Alberta, in Newfoundland and Labrador, in Prince Edward Island, because we're doing part of the role that government needs to do, which means that everybody should have equitable access to healthcare.

Chris Glass: 22:30

Yeah, and when you think of universal healthcare in Canada, you know that's it's a term that gets thrown around quite a bit, but access isn't universal and that's part of the issue. Everybody can go see a doctor, but if there's not a doctor in your area or if there's not a specialist in your area, that becomes a real barrier.

Mark Rubinstein: 22:53

Yeah, there's no question. And if you live in Calgary or Vancouver or Toronto or Montreal, you drive by these hospitals and they look like palaces of medicine. Right, it's beautiful. You drive by these hospitals and they look like palaces of medicine, right, it's beautiful. And they had the latest equipment and great, great doctors and nurses and support staff.

Mark Rubinstein: 23:09

But what if you can't afford to get there? Yeah, it doesn't mean anything to you, yeah, you know. So if you live in Fort Mac and you have to get to the kids' hospital in Calgary and you're too sick to make the drive, or the weather is inclement and you can't make the drive, then what do you do? If you can't afford the cost of a flight and the cost of a hotel, if you have to stay overnight, and that plays itself out really in every province in the country. And that's why I say Hope Air is an essential part of our health care system, because we are eliminating those barriers of distance and cost and we have a motto, which is that everyone deserves the same access to good health care. It doesn't matter who you are, it doesn't matter where you live.

Mark Rubinstein: 23:53

And it doesn't matter how little you may have, but in a country as big as Canada, as we were talking about at the beginning, you have to use the power of aviation to bridge those distances, to allow people to get from home to hospital in the most time-efficient way possible. We have many people who, many patients who are working. They can't afford to take extra days off, a 12-hour drive to get back home, never mind the punishing toll that that takes on people who are sick and vulnerable and going through all forms of treatment.

Mark Rubinstein: 24:33

Right. So access to care is everything, and the good news is that increasingly we're seeing that. We understand that everybody's got to do their part. Government's got to provide some funding. The airline and airport sectors have to become partners, which they are, and we're so grateful for that. The private sector has to step up, as they want to do, to help support that, and if everyone does their part, no one will ever be denied support by Hope Air, because that's the one thing that keeps me up at night is how they know to somebody.

Chris Glass: 25:10

That was our first phone call and it really got me that. That was the thing that kept you up the most.

Mark Rubinstein: 25:16

You know, as demand grows exponentially. So we went from. You may remember I said earlier, eventually. So we went from. You may remember I said earlier 13,000 travel arrangements in 2019. Then we dropped by 50% because of COVID People couldn't fly, they couldn't get their appointments that 2023, we soared back up to 25,000 travel arrangements and I thought to myself that's an all-time record, great, we've kind of hit the top of the mountain and that's that. Well, this year we're going to exceed 45,000 travel arrangements, so we're helping so many more people, which is great.

Mark Rubinstein: 25:54

But then you always have the concern how do we fund it? How do we make sure that we can give people all the program support they need and deserve? Right, because literally there is no one else to turn to. If Hope Air did not exist, people would be in desperate straits, and that's why we've been here for 38 plus years doing this work, growing as people realize that I need help and who's going to help me? We're national, so we work in every province. We're healthcare condition agnostic. We'll help you. Whether you're traveling for a respiratory issue, a cardiac issue, a pediatric issue, cancer treatment, it doesn't matter, we'll help you. If you're a senior, we'll help you. If you're a child, we'll help you if you're just a family struggling to make ends meet every month. So it really is. It's a magical charity doing such profound, profound work.

Chris Glass: 26:53

Right. So one of the things I really wanted to get to, too, is I know, especially with a charity that does such great work like this, that there's some stories that are your favorites and there's some ones that you hold with you. Can you tell me about them?

Mark Rubinstein: 27:09

Well, there's so many, but the one that comes to mind is my wife and I were in the lower mainland of British Columbia this past summer and we decided to go to the Sunshine Coast. And for any of your listeners or viewers who know about the Sunshine Coast, you typically take a ferry from the lower mainland Horseshoe Bay over to the Sunshine Coast and when you get to Horseshoe Bay it's just like a big parking lot, there's no overhead coverage of any kind and there's like hundreds or thousands of cars waiting to board the ferry. And it was an incredibly hot day that day and the ferry was late by two hours. You're not allowed to idle your car there.

Chris Glass: 27:56

So no air conditioning.

Mark Rubinstein: 27:58

So a lot of people are just walking around, and so I'm walking around and I'm just noticing what's going on. A lot of people are just walking around, and so I'm walking around and I'm just noticing what's going on and I notice a woman who's sitting in the passenger side of her car with her feet out, and I wander over and she's there with a little dog and a dog bowl of water and I love animals and dogs. So I go over and I say hi, what's going on? And she said this is killing me. What's going on? And she said this is killing me. And I looked around. I said I know what you mean. It's killing me too. It's so hot and it's so uncomfortable. She said no, no, you don't understand.

Mark Rubinstein: 28:32

I live on the Sunshine Coast. I have to take two ferries to get to the lower mainland and then drive to Surrey for cancer treatment. If a ferry is late, it means that I may not be able to get back the same day. I can't afford to stay overnight in Vancouver. So she was literally crying about this.

Mark Rubinstein: 28:56

So I had my Hope Air hat on and I said maybe we can help. You have you ever heard of Hope Air on? And I said maybe we can help you. Have you ever heard of Hope Air? She said no, and I told her what we did. And then I'll never forget what she said, which was why would somebody do that for me? Why would a volunteer pilot fly from Vancouver to the Sunshine Coast, to a small town where I live, to pick me up, take me to care and then take me home? So I said, listen, here's my card, here's my email address. You can go online or call us. And the next day she called and we've been assisting her ever since. So you think about these random meetings where it you know, it's almost like the fates are saying you're being called to go talk to this stranger.

Chris Glass: 29:48

Yeah.

Mark Rubinstein: 29:49

And hopefully she's doing well and she's, you know, on her health care journey. So that's one of a thousand stories where you have this opportunity to make a difference in the life of somebody. And what I would say, chris, is there's something else about Hope Air which is really remarkable is there's not many organizations where, every day, you're actually seeing that you are having a profound effect on the healthcare outcomes of people right across the country, and there's many great organizations that do good work across all kinds of social issues, but we are, in the moment, helping someone deal with life-threatening healthcare issues and so to have that direct impact, I think that's what fuels our tank as tiring as it can be to do all of this work.

Mark Rubinstein: 30:43

You wake up every day with yet another example, just like the story I just told you, which is really quite inspiring.

Chris Glass: 30:52

Yeah, so on that note, talking about the tank, this must be never-ending. So what is the need now for Hope Air Going forward? What are you looking to gain from support? What's the demand in the future and what's the immediate needs of Hope Air? What can our listeners do to help?

Mark Rubinstein: 31:15

Yeah, well, I mean in terms of support for those who have the ability and the interest, we would greatly appreciate any consideration for donations to Hope Air to help us fund our work. Over 80 cents of every dollar we raise goes to support directly our programs and services and we're purchasing most of our programs, so that's greatly appreciated.

Mark Rubinstein: 31:41

Right, so that's greatly appreciated Any corporations that are looking for a way who may have an affinity for the issue that we're involved in. We'd love to have a chat about how we might collaborate for you to help us, but also for us to help you. People want to work for a company that expresses its values. A lot of people who work at companies come from smaller places grew up in smaller places have friends in smaller places.

Mark Rubinstein: 32:11

I've met many CEOs who now support Hope Air, who also understand what it's like to struggle to put food on the table with their family as a kid, where it wasn't quite sure what the next meal was going to be.

Mark Rubinstein: 32:25

Or maybe the parents couldn't afford a winter jacket and they were going to use the same jacket from three years ago. So everybody can relate to the mission of Hope Air, whether it has to do with the challenges of living in rural and underserved communities, struggling financially and just putting food on the table. Think about the millions of Canadians going to food banks every week just to feed themselves and their family, or people who connect to wow the power of aviation to connect people to healthcare. How unique is that? And so demand is going to continue to grow. More people are going to need our help. Our job is to step up and deliver that service, but we can't do it alone, and that's why we need to continue to build our community of supporters so that we're always there to say yes when someone says can you please get me to care, far from home.

Chris Glass: 33:18

So when we talk about this year 45,000 travel arrangements, if you were a travel agency, you'd be one of the larger ones in Canada, right? What does that look like going forward? Are you expected to be doing 45,000 next year, or is it going to be 60? What's that number?

Mark Rubinstein: 33:39

It's going to continue to exponentially grow. It wouldn't surprise me if the charity surpassed 100,000 travel arrangements within the next five years. The need is only going to increase. I mentioned earlier that every province is struggling with its healthcare system, keeping emergency rooms staffed and operating 24-7. And in rural, remote, underserved communities that dynamic is just off the charts. Yeah, it's going to take a long time for governments and others to solve this problem. So in the interim, more and more people are going to have no choice but to leave where they live, to normally go south to get care right.

Mark Rubinstein: 34:26

And you combine that with the economic challenges that so many people are facing, just getting by being able to balance the budget on a monthly basis, you know the cost to travel four or five times uh, north, southouth, in any province can easily exceed $10,000. That's round-trip airfare for both you and your escort. That could be multiple hotel rooms, that could be taxis and Ubers, that could be meal support. Most of our patients have nowhere close to that. So what do you do? People go into debt, people move into poverty, neither of which is acceptable. So this charity is going to continue to grow because we are the only charity doing this work and, by the way, I think we are the largest provider of non-emergency medical travel support in Canada.

Chris Glass: 35:19

That's staggering, it is.

Mark Rubinstein: 35:21

And a way to think about it is, if you think about the work that Starz does in Alberta or the work that Orange does in Ontario, we are the non-emergency equivalent of those services. Yeah, we're helping people who are really, really sick. They haven't been in a traumatic car accident, but their life is being threatened, and so the work that we do is just as vital and just as important as emergency airline support services. So the need is going to be great, the funding requirements for the charity is going to be great, but we are very, very optimistic that Canadians, we're very compassionate, we're very driven by we take care of each other.

Chris Glass: 36:05

We do take care of each other.

Mark Rubinstein: 36:06

And boy do you see that in the example of volunteer pilots and the other examples I used, we have a really committed, passionate group. We have to expand that community but I'm confident we can do it.

Chris Glass: 36:19

Now you had mentioned events, so Hope Air is a part of a lot of great events. What does the 2025 calendar look like? What can people across Canada look forward to?

Mark Rubinstein: 36:45

with eight of your best friends and that's a friendly competition. So you know, in Calgary, for example I think we talked about the the CEO of WestJet and his leadership team were on the rope line trying to to to beat the other teams. We typically have some ringers in there because the local firefighting teams typically enter. They can're like Olympic athletes. No one's ever going to compete with them.

Mark Rubinstein: 37:06

So we're going to do Hall for Hopes, as we call them, in seven or eight cities, including in Vancouver, calgary, kelowna, edmonton, toronto, amongst other cities, and then every year we do an expedition called Give Hope Wings, which is organized by volunteer pilots. So I talked about volunteer pilots who are flying missions. What they also do is they organize an expedition which in past years has been across the country. They'll fly to dozens of communities large ones, small ones, raise awareness for Hope Air. Communities large ones, small ones, raise awareness for Hope Air, so for people who don't know about the charity, will contact us and then raise funding for the charity. So, as a great fundraising event, lots of media coverage. So those two initiatives Hall for Hope and Give Hope Wings will be our signature events coming to a community close to you.

Chris Glass: 38:05

Absolutely, and you know they can go to hopeairca for more information.

Mark Rubinstein: 38:09

More information. Some of the dates are still being finalized, but we tend to kick all this off in the spring usually June of 2025, and then into the fall as well. So they've been very, very successful. We have patients who come out to each of these events. Talk about the impact of Hope Air. We have airline partners. We have airport partners, because these halls are typically happening at YYC or at YVR or at Billy Bishop City Center Airport, and so our airport partners, you know, designate a part of the runway so that we can do it safely, and they're a lot of fun, but they're also incredibly important to raise awareness and funding.

Chris Glass: 38:53

Well, you talked about airline partners, you talked about airport partners. Now you have a podcast partner. So, here at Open Skies, we're just completely honored, uh, to spend the day here and to be able to travel out to toronto and, uh, really get to know you guys. So, uh, thank you so much for spending some time with us today and and uh, lifting up these great stories and lifting up this great organization, um, I hope every single person who listens to this pod or sees it or follows us on LinkedIn or Instagram or any of the channels that we're on, please contact Hope Air, get involved, become part of this great organization, because the work that's going on here is just tremendous. This office is so vibrant and everybody that I've met so far has such love for what they're doing. So, mark, you're leading a great organization and thank you so much for spending some time with us today.

Mark Rubinstein: 39:51

Grateful for the conversation and thank you for the interest Excellent.

Chris Glass: 39:55

Thank you once again for spending some time with us here at the Open Skies podcast. We've got great stories coming up from Hope Air, as this is going to be part of a two-part episode. Thank you so much for your time.