Okay.
My concern with the motion is twofold. One is that if municipalities are given the power to reject the presence of an airport, then we won't have airports, because there's no community in the country that wants to have an airport nearby. Everybody wants an airport within a 45-minute drive, but nobody wants one within sight. Everybody wants an airport in somebody else's municipality.
So if we were to say that there's a particular municipality that doesn't want an airport and therefore we will block it from going ahead, we just simply won't have aviation in Canada. We'll be the one country in the developed world that doesn't have planes that fly, unless you can find a way for air traffic to occur without airports, and I'm not aware of one. We're currently studying innovation and technology, so maybe we'll get a witness who will come here and talk about how you can have airplanes that fly without having them either launch or land, but so far we haven't yet heard any testimony from a witness on how that can be done.
The second concern I have with this motion is this ongoing trend whereby members of Parliament bring forward studies on a highly localized issue, the discussion of which at this committee generates for them some media coverage in their local community, even though this committee has none of the powers to affect the issue in question. For example, this committee cannot decide whether or not there will be an airport in Neuville—or anywhere, for that matter. It can't shut down the Ottawa International Airport. It cannot move the Calgary International Airport. It cannot prevent an airport from opening, ask one to close, or have any power over where airports locate.
It's possible, though, for a member of Parliament to send out a press release in their community and say that they're taking it to the transport committee. Then they can have a front-page headline saying that the community's MP has gone off to Ottawa and is putting the matter before the transport committee, and then a second press release saying that the transport committee looked at it, and that if they had only agreed with the MP, then there would be no airport in their neighbourhood.
That makes for great local media coverage for that particular member of Parliament, but, one, it's inaccurate, because this committee cannot locate airports or prevent them from being located and, two, it takes the committee away from its mandate to work on matters over which it does have some jurisdiction.
Those are my two concerns with this particular motion. I think that's the reason we had sought to adjourn the debate earlier. It was in order to recognize the fact that as a committee we don't control where airports are located and, frankly, nor does the committee nor the people of this or any other community benefit from our pretending that we have that authority when all of us in the room know that we do not.
With that, Mr. Chair, now that we've heard from all of the parties on the question, I would move to adjourn the debate—