Transport Committee on March 29th, 2012

[Kevin Lamoureux, Liberal, Winnipeg North, MB]

I don't want to address the issue of a bailout. I don't think that's the point of the discussion here today, nor has it been anywhere near the discussion since Aveos closed its doors.

What interests me—and the reason we would support the motion being brought forward—is it's important for us to note that there must have been some form of a fairly strong relationship between Aveos and Air Canada. I talked with numerous employees of Air Canada, who were ultimately shifted over to Aveos. I can recall very clearly that many of the employees who made that shift indicated they were concerned that this was just a shell game Air Canada was playing, and Aveos was just executing what Air Canada wanted: to be able to ultimately facilitate the demise of those very important jobs.

Individuals who worked for Air Canada and were transferred over to Aveos said they were wearing Air Canada clothing at Aveos, and they didn't even change over until recently. There's a very strong correlation between those two companies. I think it's worth the effort to try to get some clarification on that issue through Aveos.

I would like Aveos to be given the opportunity to come before the committee so we can at least address these issues head-on. We owe that to the former employees of both Aveos and Air Canada. That's why I think there's a great deal of merit in this. At the end of the day, the employees who have been affected by this want to hear the truth of the matter.

The only way we're going to get to the bottom of this is to get Aveos to come before the committee and tell us why they took the actions they did over a year ago. For us to push them to the side or not recognize them as a significant player in this would be wrong. We would be doing a disservice to the employees and ultimately to all Canadians. We need to get down to what actually transpired and deal with some of the conspiracies that many employees believe took place. I'm interested in finding out the truth on this issue. We owe it to the former employees of Air Canada who were changed over to Aveos.

Thank you, Mr. Chairperson.

[The Chair, Conservative, Merv Tweed]

Ms. Morin.

[Isabelle Morin, NDP, Notre-Dame-de-Grâce—Lachine, QC]

I will be brief, Mr. Chair.

In response to the three or four questions he was asked on Monday and the five or six questions he was asked on Tuesday, our Minister of Transport told us that what he is going to do to take action on this file is to call Air Canada, the Department of Transport and Aveos to appear before the committee.

So I am surprised to see that the parliamentary secretary refuses to follow up on what his minister told us, namely that Aveos should appear before the committee.

Furthermore, no one here, aside from the Conservatives, is talking about giving $1 billion to Aveos. I am surprised to see the Conservatives talking about that. We do not want to give $1 billion to Aveos; that is not at all what we are asking for. We are asking for Aveos' representatives to appear before us to explain what happened. I can imagine that the Conservatives may have no other solution than to give $1 billion to Aveos. On our side, that is not what we think. We think we should call Aveos in and question its representatives in order to find out what did not work and what we could do so that things go better in the future.

In my opinion, if we want to follow the Minister of Transport, we should have Aveos appear.

[The Chair, Conservative, Merv Tweed]

Mr. Caron.

[Guy Caron, NDP, Rimouski-Neigette—Témiscouata—Les Basques, QC]

During this committee meeting, I have been quite amused by some of the questions from my colleague opposite. No one talked about a bailout, except Mr. Poilievre. Neither the union nor the opposition parties talked about that.

I think there are very valid reasons to have Aveos here and discuss the situation. I think that even some Conservative colleagues mentioned their deep interest in speaking with Aveos. There are many unanswered questions, among others the corporate game that is being played.

the shell game that's being played right now. It is important, if we want to get to the bottom of this, to actually have the representatives from Aveos here to answer the questions we will have for them.

I can assure you that from this side there will be no question about a possible bailout. That's not our intention, and it's not the intention of the union, as far as I know. It might have been the intention of Aveos behind closed doors; I have no clue about that.

If the government is as interested as we are in getting to the bottom of this to understand what has happened in the last two weeks, they should be voting for this motion. It's in their power to do so.

At this point I will ask for the vote.

[Jamie Nicholls, NDP, Vaudreuil—Soulanges, QC]

A recorded vote.

[The Chair, Conservative, Merv Tweed]

I see no further comments.

A recorded vote has been requested. The question is whether the committee shall summons executives from Aveos, with the specifics of the names.... I just don't have that front of me. The motion is put, and I'll ask Alexandre to call the vote.

(Motion negatived: nays 6; yeas 5)

[The Chair, Conservative, Merv Tweed]

Seeing that it is 10:30, I will thank our guests for being here. We appreciate your time today.

The next meeting will take place on Tuesday at the regular time.

Thank you, everyone. Have a good weekend.

The meeting is adjourned.