I am going to vote in favour of the motion. It is true that this has been going on for a long time. The bill was introduced in 2005, according to Mauril, if I am not mistaken. In addition, it was introduced again by the current government in 2006, but it seems that nothing ever came of it. But we are not going to be called a “bunch of turkeys” again; we have four years ahead of us. If the bill were introduced today, we would like to know what the government would do.
There is a problem with the history of Air Canada, which is subject to the Official Languages Act. However, in terms of its affiliates, like Jazz, not all parties are protected. So this is about closing the loop. That is what the bill was supposed to do.
I also spoke with Minister Baird and Minister Cannon when they were the ministers of transport. We talked about this and a bill was supposed to appear somewhere. If not, we are definitely going to miss the boat. If we truly want to protect the French language, the Air Canada bill is appropriate. It could be a solution.
We have already heard about it from witnesses who appeared before the committee, and Air Canada knows that the bill is underway. This is a good motion and I am going to support it.