Transport committee  Mr. Coderre, I would take that even further: the entire federal legislative system should be up for discussion. Nothing is happening. You were absolutely right when you said that nobody is obeying the spirit of the law. These laws are passed democratically. Now they’re telling Ca

Transport committee  I believe that the GM workers were unionized, yet the Conservative government pitched in to save 3,000 jobs in Ontario. I talked to Minister Lebel, who told me that it was a partnership with the Obama administration to save those jobs. I don’t know if it’s because Air Canada is

Transport committee  Personally, I like to paint a clear picture for everyone. What my colleague from Winnipeg said is true: the number of people has dropped over the years. You talked about viability. In 2003, Air Canada Maintenance or ACTS—call it whatever you want—was totally viable. In 2007, wh

Transport committee  This figure has been thrown around but is there any evidence that 90% of the maintenance contracts were coming from Air Canada? That may have been the case for the aircraft in the hangars, but we were doing maintenance on other aircraft. National Defence—

Transport committee  I would like to give a few examples. It is being said that Aveos had a guaranteed contract with Air Canada for all of Air Canada's maintenance. That is true but only to a certain point. I told you earlier that Aveos did not invest any money in obtaining the maintenance contract f

Transport committee  Let me answer your question, please. We were doing maintenance on Air Transat planes. Many of the engine maintenance centre's contracts came from other companies. We are talking about 90%, but I would like some evidence to back up that number because I do not believe that it is

Transport committee  Right now, we are really waiting for a saviour. There is no other word for it. We are waiting for someone who is really involved, who wants to get the maintenance, repair and overhaul sector going again with the best technicians in the world. We are not the only ones who are sayi

Transport committee  When I met with the minister, he first told me that he was looking into the situation. He must have told me that 20 times. He also told me that his door was still open.

Transport committee  Yes. He told me to leave my door open, so the door is open. I hope that your door is open to bring these workers back to work in the hangars, whether it be with the help of Lufthansa Technik, MTU or any of the other companies whose names have been thrown around but who, to date,

Transport committee  That is why I am telling you today that the spirit of the act must be respected. If a supplier wants to come in and buy the facilities, Air Canada must provide a guarantee that it will give its contracts to that supplier. Right now, in the spirit of the act, the government must

Transport committee  We do not have to look as far back as 1988. We can simply look at the situation that existed shortly before the sale. If you were to come and visit the hangars now, you would see that this is an excellent maintenance centre. The pilots say that it is the best in the world. Air Ca

Transport committee  It is sometimes said that the situation was planned in advance. In the beginning, Aveos was in all of Air Canada's facilities, but then Air Canada started renting its facilities to Aveos by square foot, and I can tell you that it charged an exorbitant price. Aveos therefore had n

Transport committee  We want help. That is what we want.

Transport committee  In my opinion, the act is clear. The spirit of the act is clear. Benoît Bouchard feels the same way as we do. He was the transport minister. The experts who came in 1988 said that, if someone wanted to sell these overhaul centres, then the act would have to be amended. The act ha

Transport committee  I would just like to clarify that we did not organize the job fair. I believe it was organized by former Aveos managers. We are not the ones who organized it, and that is fine.