Madam Speaker, we are hearing absolutely incredible things in the House today. We are getting back at the linguistic debate. We wanted to talk about the issue of security, and we have taken for granted that French had its place in the air in Quebec, but our colleagues beside us want to
debate the linguistic question again and are saying that French should be eliminated. I will not get into that debate because it is obsolete.
I would prefer to point out the intervention of my colleague for Laurier-Sainte-Marie, who was quite eloquent. He said something that I found interesting and really true. He said that, at some point in time, he was the only passenger aboard an Air Alliance plane, probably a DH-8 that can seat approximately 30 people. That illustrates very clearly the problems of small carriers. You see, a big carrier servicing the Vancouver-Montréal line has no problem because its planes are 80 per cent full most of the time. They have big planes that cost a lot of money, but there are a lot of passengers. So, they are profitable.
But, in regions, the reality is much different. The planes take off even if there are only one or fifteen passengers aboard. It does not mean that that sole passenger is not important. That passenger must be flown to Montreal. There is an air service between Montreal and, for example, Alma, which is also in my riding. This service is very important and very costly, in terms of privatization, because small carriers have very high costs even if they have only a few passengers. That explains the price of plane tickets. And this is my concern because small carriers are finding it hard to survive, due to the situation mentioned by my colleague and that small carriers experience every day. We will have to think seriously about it.
Therefore, the question I put to my colleague concerns the fact that Nav Canada will not be accountable to the government, just like ADM is not. A board is set up and the government says that if a bad decision is made, it is not its problem because it was taken by the Nav Canada board. I would like our colleague to talk a little about the problems that that may cause, since he knows better than me ADM's situation.