Hi Byrna!
You have to understand that charter carriers are not LCCs. LCCs are scheduled carriers operating at low cost. So in that sense, AT does not qualify as a LCC. Actually, in Canada, AT is the carrier who provides the best working conditions of its category (thus not necessarily the lowest cost operator), compared to Skyservice, Zoom and HMY.
As for your question regarding cutting corners on maintenance, the record speaks for itself... AT is now 18 years old and has a pretty good maintenance record if you're asking me, so does the other charter carriers in Canada, apart from the very few heavily mediatized "incidents" that you might be tempted to refer to..
