Evidence of meeting #44 for Transport, Infrastructure and Communities in the 40th Parliament, 3rd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was aveos.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Noon
Assistant General Counsel, Law Branch, Air Canada
Yes. That's my opinion.
Noon
Conservative
Brian Jean Conservative Fort McMurray—Athabasca, AB
That would be my opinion as well. They're free to do that as long as they have privity of contract. As long as they're a shareholder, they can buy one share, and they can go and do it. Right?
Noon
Assistant General Counsel, Law Branch, Air Canada
Maybe we can see a flurry of trading on our shares after this.
Noon
Voices
Oh, oh!
Noon
Conservative
Brian Jean Conservative Fort McMurray—Athabasca, AB
Why? Do you think people are going to buy because you're more competitive? It certainly begs the question in that WestJet, another Canadian airline, obviously out of Calgary, a very popular airline, honestly has a competitive advantage, wouldn't you say?
12:05 p.m.
Assistant General Counsel, Law Branch, Air Canada
They do have more flexibility than we do.
12:05 p.m.
Conservative
12:05 p.m.
Assistant General Counsel, Law Branch, Air Canada
And their cost structure is better than ours.
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Conservative
Brian Jean Conservative Fort McMurray—Athabasca, AB
Yes, exactly. In fact I think they have to fly at only 67% capacity, and you're somewhere around 78% capacity.
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Conservative
Brian Jean Conservative Fort McMurray—Athabasca, AB
It's almost as though I did my homework on this one.
The court can lift the corporate veil as well, which you understand means they can look beyond the act like this and get to the meat and potatoes of it and whether or not you are complying with the act. Right? That's what they call lifting the corporate veil, so they can go behind all these documents and all the agreements and incorporation documents, and so on, and look and see what is actually taking place.
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Assistant General Counsel, Law Branch, Air Canada
If a shareholder or group of shareholders were to take proceedings, then we would, in a debate, demonstrate whether we comply or not.
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Conservative
Brian Jean Conservative Fort McMurray—Athabasca, AB
And the court could in turn lift the corporate veil and look behind all of these documents to see whether you're compliant or not.
12:05 p.m.
Assistant General Counsel, Law Branch, Air Canada
Yes, but they don't need to lift the corporate veil for that.
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Conservative
Brian Jean Conservative Fort McMurray—Athabasca, AB
I understand that, but they can. The court can do that.
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Conservative
Brian Jean Conservative Fort McMurray—Athabasca, AB
I'm just trying to say there's no fancy footwork that can be done by anybody in relation to this, because the court will take that veil of secrecy, if you want to call it that--it's just the terminology used by some--and they can take apart all the documents, and they can look to see what you're doing and whether you're compliant. So they have the ability to do that now as a shareholder.
12:05 p.m.
Conservative
Brian Jean Conservative Fort McMurray—Athabasca, AB
And in fact the court has the ability to interpret that agreement.
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Conservative
Brian Jean Conservative Fort McMurray—Athabasca, AB
Great.
When are we expecting this decision to come down?
12:05 p.m.
Assistant General Counsel, Law Branch, Air Canada
Do you mean the one from the CIRB?