Industry Committee on March 11th, 2021

[The Chair, Liberal, Sherry Romanado]

Before you answer that, Mr. Gibbons, I'm going to pause the clock. Could you move your microphone a little closer to your mouth so we can get a better quality of audio for the translation?

[Andy Gibbons]

How's that?

[The Chair, Liberal, Sherry Romanado]

That's much better. Thank you.

I'll start the clock. Go ahead.

[Andy Gibbons]

In that letter from our chief executive officer you'll note that one of the components we believe is critical to the recovery is that we do have the opportunity to continue to green our fleets and reduce emissions and help the government meet its emissions targets. That's central to us, it has been.

Key to that is that we remain profitable and we have the money to invest and to continue to re-fleet and buy those green aircraft. Those are negotiations between those carriers and their governments, but philosophically speaking and politically speaking, yes, we're aligned on the need to green our fleet and to assist the government and the nation meet its GHG targets.

[Nathaniel Erskine-Smith, Liberal, Beaches—East York, ON]

Thanks very much.

My last question, as Mr. Dias isn't here, will be for Ms. Tiessen. It's on potential restrictions.

If we take a worker focus, do you think it would then be fair to say if federal dollars are on the table to bail out the sector we're going to make sure dollars go to workers and that we put restrictions on, say, dividend payments or executive compensation?

[The Chair, Liberal, Sherry Romanado]

Answer very quickly, as you're out of time.

[Kaylie Tiessen]

We've put on the table the need to make sure benefits—exactly your wording—flow to workers in terms of keeping wages, benefits, working conditions, limit executive bonuses, and make sure that workers are gaining back what they've lost before there's this explosion in shareholder value, like what happened after the restructuring in 2009 at other airlines, for example.

[Nathaniel Erskine-Smith, Liberal, Beaches—East York, ON]

Thanks very much.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sherry Romanado]

Thank you very much.

Mr. Lemire, you have the floor for two and a half minutes.

[Sébastien Lemire, Bloc, Abitibi—Témiscamingue, QC]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Mr. Balducchi, when we listen to aerospace companies, particularly Airbus, we get the sense that your company has a stable global vision with the predictability needed in a successful aerospace ecosystem. On the other hand, the decisions and actions of the federal government do not contribute to that global vision.

Can the federal government's negligence limit the investments that Airbus could make in Canada in the future?

[Philippe Balducchi]

This brings us back to the previous question. We are indeed in a global environment where cycles are long. Broadly speaking, the lack of support for the Canadian industry is certainly not an encouraging factor for the development of Airbus in Canada in particular.

That said, I would still remind you that, despite the crisis, as an example, we decided to launch the business version of the A220. We also launched pre-FAL activities, that is to say, a restructuring of our industrial tool, here in Mirabel.

This does not prevent us from making decisions that benefit Mirabel, but you are right that the lack of action is disappointing. It does not encourage us to move forward on a number of investments.

[Sébastien Lemire, Bloc, Abitibi—Témiscamingue, QC]

May I remind people that you have invested billions of dollars and you need to reassure people in your global group in the current context. That's normal.

France has given incentives for scrapping old aircraft and buying A220 aircraft. If there was a Canadian strategy that allowed a company like WestJet, here, or Air Canada to acquire aircraft in the context of COVID-19 and buy them two or three years later, when they were financially strong enough, what effect would that have on your supply chain?

I think there are some connection issues.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sherry Romanado]

I hear you. First, I'll stop the clock.

Mr. Lemire, could you repeat your question? I don't know if Mr. Balducchi heard it.

[Sébastien Lemire, Bloc, Abitibi—Témiscamingue, QC]

Mr. Balducchi's image has frozen again.

We talk about the Internet issue a lot. I know we're almost done, but it's fascinating, because I'm in Parliament right now and I have a wired connection, but I'm told that my connection is not stable.

I can't see Mr. Balducchi anymore.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sherry Romanado]

Please hold on a moment. I'm going to check with the clerk to see what's going on.

Mike, I think we've lost one of our witnesses.

[Sébastien Lemire, Bloc, Abitibi—Témiscamingue, QC]

If you don't mind, I could come back to this later, as I don't see Mr. Cardin either, and I could have put my question to him.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sherry Romanado]

We'll check into what happened, and I may be able to give you more time in the next round if we're able to fix the connection issues.

[Sébastien Lemire, Bloc, Abitibi—Témiscamingue, QC]

That's fine.

I don't see Mr. Dias anymore either.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sherry Romanado]

Indeed.

Mr. Lemire, I will add 30 seconds to your next turn and we will try to contact them.

Do you agree?

[Sébastien Lemire, Bloc, Abitibi—Témiscamingue, QC]

I don't have a choice.

Thank you very much.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sherry Romanado]

Thank you.

While we're trying to reconnect the other witnesses that we lost, we will go to MP Masse.

You have the floor for two and half minutes.

[Brian Masse, NDP, Windsor West, ON]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

My first question is for Unifor again.

With regard to the members, can you elaborate a little bit on how many contributions they make on a regular basis? They pay into dues, and dues go to the United Way and other things and training and supports for workers.

I just want to make sure it's not seen as one-sided. When we invest in the workers, the workers are also reinvesting back into our community. I think that needs to be made clear.

[Kaylie Tiessen]

I can take that question. Jerry must have been kicked out.

Our members pay dues to the union. The union fights for all sorts of things, including better training. In the aerospace sector, we're always talking about improved and increased training for the sector so that we're investing in the workers of the future. We often hear from employers that there is a shortage of skilled workers in the sector, so investing in training is a really important piece of this. We partner with employers and, particularly in Quebec, with local educational institutions to make sure that training is available. It's certainly something we would encourage the federal government to invest in more as well. Many of you have seen our document that lists all of our recommendations to government on this issue. I would be happy to make sure that's sent to each of you.

In addition to that, we do have things like the social justice fund, where a portion of members' dues is donated to different organizations. Our members often work together to collect money that is donated in their communities as well to make sure there is this cyclical type of improvement in the community for everyone.

I hope that answers your question.

[Brian Masse, NDP, Windsor West, ON]

It does.

If you're not familiar with it, you probably don't quite understand it. I come from a community that sees this every day. It is not just one-sided, and I don't want that to be the impression.

There are also training programs specifically to do with gender and racial equality and so forth. You continue to do work on those programs to fill the gap in a traditional workforce that has been very much discriminatory to those groups. Is that right?

[Kaylie Tiessen]

Yes, absolutely. We have training programs connected with the shipbuilding sector specifically and other trade groups to get women in trades and indigenous people in trades. It's to make workplaces more welcoming for people who have been traditionally excluded because they have faced discrimination. It's not about changing the individual. It's about changing the workplace so that it's more welcoming for everyone.