Thank you, Mr. Minister, for joining us here with your staff. I'm glad to have you here.
On this particular issue--and I don't want to belabour it too much here today because there are other things to go on to--quite clearly, if unions agreed to changes in management, it was with the understanding that their jobs would remain here in Canada. They would remain as part of the agreed-upon act of Parliament that made this happen. I don't see it being a particularly important point that the unions went along with the merger, because they were under the understanding that these laws would remain in place and that these operational centres would remain.
Basically what they're looking for is that the Canada Industrial Relations Board's decision concerning the transition of Air Canada employees to a subcontractor be set aside until the government takes a position on this act. Do you support the act? With that, this relationship will remain. Two years is not a long contract when you're talking about highly skilled professional workers who are in the field right now in the numbers they are. Where is the assurance these people can have, moving forward, on their benefits and their relationships?
This is something that has great importance in the Canadian economy as well.