Industry Committee on March 11th, 2021

Evidence of meeting #22 for Industry, Science and Technology in the 43rd Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was aircraft.

A recording is available from Parliament.

On the agenda

Development and Support of the Aerospace Industry

MPs speaking

Sherry Romanado

Earl Dreeshen

Ali Ehsassi

Simon-Pierre Savard-Tremblay

Brian Masse

Bernard Généreux

Nathaniel Erskine-Smith

Emmanuella Lambropoulos

Also speaking

Philippe Balducchi Chief Executive Officer, Airbus Canada

Dwayne Charette President and Chief Operating Officer, Airbus Helicopters Canada

Hugo Brouillard Chief of Operations and Operations Officer, STELIA Aerospace St-Laurent

Daniel Goldberg President and Chief Executive Officer, Telesat

Jerry Dias National President, Unifor

Renaud Gagné Director, Unifor Québec, Unifor

Andy Gibbons Director, Government Relations and Regulatory Affairs, WestJet Airlines Ltd.

Kaylie Tiessen National Representative, Research Department, Unifor

1 p.m.

Chief Executive Officer, Airbus Canada

Philippe Balducchi

I'll let Mr. Gibbons answer for the airline, but there have been a number of programs targeted as well to the aerospace industry, not just the airline industry, and they usually go hand in hand. Those are very easily available. I don't think I need to go further into detail. I think that has been communicated already. It's usually a very thorough plan to address the short term, the medium term and the long term, and it is several faceted.

As far as the airline goes, Mr. Gibbons is probably best placed to comment.

March 11th, 2021 / 1 p.m.

Director, Government Relations and Regulatory Affairs, WestJet Airlines Ltd.

Andy Gibbons

Thank you, Philippe.

With respect to support, that's a conversation and a current ongoing negotiation, but with respect to safe restart, I'm happy to send the committee information to follow up.

The best current example today would be the United Kingdom, which set clear metrics and a date for a safe reopening, and I don't think we should be shy about prioritizing it in that way.

We were really encouraged by the Prime Minister on January 29. He also said that WestJet and Air Canada are strong partners in limiting the spread of COVID, so safety has really been a shared priority, notwithstanding any difficult issues we have navigated with the government. We have been working well together to curb the spread, and we were really happy that the Prime Minister acknowledged that on January 29.

1 p.m.

Liberal

Emmanuella Lambropoulos Liberal Saint-Laurent, QC

Thank you.

I sit on the public safety committee as well. Yesterday we had witnesses from both public safety and health who did say that in the very near future we'd be back to normal with regard to travel. That's just a little word of encouragement. The more people get vaccinated, I believe, that's really the key here to restarting as quickly as possible.

1 p.m.

Director, Government Relations and Regulatory Affairs, WestJet Airlines Ltd.

Andy Gibbons

Absolutely.

1 p.m.

Liberal

Emmanuella Lambropoulos Liberal Saint-Laurent, QC

I have no further questions.

Thank you.

1 p.m.

Director, Government Relations and Regulatory Affairs, WestJet Airlines Ltd.

Andy Gibbons

Thank you.

1 p.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Sherry Romanado

Thank you very much.

That is our time for today.

To the witnesses, thank you for being with us today. This has been incredibly helpful to us. Thank you for your frank testimony.

I am a proud Quebecker and a proud Canadian, and the aerospace sector is very important to us.

This will help us immensely in our study. Again, thank you so much for being with us today.

To everyone in the room who allows us to do what we're doing—that would be our interpreters, our IT crew, our analysts and our clerk—thank you so much for what you are doing so that we can continue to do the job that we are doing.

With that, have a great afternoon.

This meeting is adjourned.