Mr. Speaker, I know that many Quebec municipalities are now trying to obtain the facilities they need to take over their airports, and the Bloc Quebecois supports them.
Take, for example, the creation of Nav Canada, the agency responsible for managing air traffic control. We tried, by proposing several amendments to the bill, to put the onus on the government to ensure that the facilities in these airports will allow them to be competitive, and that the decision will not be made only on the basis of the market. These amendments were systematically rejected by the federal government.
So the member is right to worry about this, and I think that people in the regions concerned must be very sensitive to these positions, continue their representations, get in touch with members of Nav Canada's boards of directors at the federal level, keep an ear out and call on their MPs so that they will speak out publicly about what is unacceptable, because airports are in fact one of the major tools of development. All transportation infrastructures are important, including airports. It is essential that our regions have the tools they need for development, particularly in a country as vast as ours.
All this is based on the assumption that the government is committed to developing Canada's regions, something we have never heard it say. For now, the government has simply said it will move people to where the jobs are. This creates major economic problem, forcing families that have been settled in regions for many years to make very difficult choices, when there is no future for these choices, for this approach.
If we hope to see detailed and concrete action concerning regional airports, there will have to be a commitment from the federal government to ensure the development of these regions. We have never been able to get a clear indication from the government in this regard.