Mr. Chair, I think if we're building a consensus around this, that's an important step, but we also need to have the machinists who are affected by the layoffs in Vancouver.
If the intent is to have Air Canada respond to questions around the layoff, the opening of the other maintenance facility, and other questions that members of the transport committee may wish to offer, I'm very open to that.
If there is a proposal for an amendment to this motion, so that essentially what we are doing is getting Air Canada and the machinists here to answer questions on this issue and others, I would be perfectly comfortable.
I believe we need to proceed fairly quickly on this, even potentially to the extent of adding another meeting of the transportation committee, because these layoff notices have gone out now. We've spent a number of committee meetings talking about layoffs that may eventually arrive in other sectors; this is something that's happening right now. These layoff notices are arriving in mailboxes throughout the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. Each of those layoff notices carries with it impacts that potentially will go to Montreal, Toronto, or Winnipeg, as people who exercise their transfer option bump somebody else who's working in those other facilities.
So we're talking about implications that are nationwide. They are real, not theoretical, and as a result of that, it's important that we take action. I'll entertain any amendments to make the motion do what I'm hoping it will do, which is to get Air Canada and the machinists here to talk about that issue, but certainly not limit it to that issue.