Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I want to thank Monsieur Guimond for providing us with a backdrop to this discussion. There is a historical perspective, a lens that needs to be provided to this. Also, the spirit or the intent of Parliament obviously has to be examined.
To Mr. Jean, I welcome your references to the current financial performance of Air Canada and its contribution to Canadian society. Perhaps if we as a committee also went back and asked our analysts, Mr. Chair, through you, to provide the historical perspective of why it is that the Air Canada Public Participation Act was actually drafted and passed by Parliament, perhaps we'd get a view, then, if included in that analysis would be the amount of public money that was put into Air Canada to actually create the position so that it could be in the commercial environment that it is today.
I have to say to the witnesses, though, through you, Mr. Chair, that lambs are becoming lions on this issue as a result of some of the testimony we're hearing this morning. I am extremely intrigued that senior representatives, or anyone coming before a parliamentary committee from the company, would not be able to answer basic, raw questions on the Air Canada Public Participation Act related to the ongoing operations of three maintenance centres. It gives parliamentarians somewhat of a cue that something is up.
I am intrigued by the way the company has structured its business. You outsource to a private contractor, yet it's Air Canada that pays the salaries of the contractor's employees. You don't feel as though there's any obligation on the part of Aveos, it's all on Air Canada, yet you cannot tell us whether or not there is anything built into the contract between Air Canada and Aveos to maintain Air Canada's obligations.
If I were a shareholder listening to this testimony, I'd be asking myself a very serious question. If Aveos decides to pull its operations out of those three centres, would Air Canada still be obligated to fulfill its contract with Aveos and the hundreds of millions of dollars that are implied therein? Would it then also have to open up brand new maintenance centres in those three urban centres to be able to maintain its obligations under the act?