Evidence of meeting #11 for Transport, Infrastructure and Communities in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was jobs.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Liberal
Vance Badawey Liberal Niagara Centre, ON
Beautiful.
I did already establish two requests to Air Canada. One was with respect to formalizing a response to expected jobs in Ontario that they alluded to when I asked that first question. I also am going to expect to see some responses on the tenders that were given out. I know it is going to be very challenging for them to do that, because not all Canadian companies tendered for all the projects that they actually put out there, but for the ones for which they do have the comparisons, I would expect to receive that information.
I'm looking at three areas, guys, and please don't use the word “demand”. That doesn't fly here. Let's work together on this. We're on the same page here. We're trying to get to the same goal here, so let's not go there. I just don't take very kindly to that.
I want to go back to sustainability again.
Jobs are one part of it, having a sustainable industry for you folks in the maintenance sector as well as keeping these jobs here in Canada.
There is also training and retraining. We're finding that 600 people are coming out annually. That's great. Where they are ending up, we don't know. They are not necessarily staying here in Canada, so question number one is, how do we keep them here in Canada? How do we keep those 600 who are being trained in Canada here within that sector? Sustainability is the first part of it.
The second part of it is, how do we get all companies to actually bid on all these tenders? How do we do that?
Go ahead.
Québec Coordinator, International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers in Canada
On the first part of the question, what I can tell you is that some of those students are coming out of school as technicians, and they're supposed to do repair and overhaul of airplanes. They are certified, and instead of doing that, because those jobs are not available, they're working on doing smaller things in other companies. That's number one.
Number two, we have sustainability in the training, but we also have, if anybody looks at the news, an industry that has been through incredible waves of layoffs. We have many certified technicians who right now are doing other things because those jobs are simply not there for them anymore. Those jobs should be there. If the law were enforced, those jobs would be there. That is one of the issues.
I'm not worried about the manpower. I have no issues with manpower or with our capabilities. We have a worldwide reputation of being some of the best.
Liberal
Vance Badawey Liberal Niagara Centre, ON
Good. Now let's take that worldwide reputation and put it into a centre of excellence. With respect to creating those centres of excellence, creating that critical mass, and thereby giving the opportunity for those centres of excellence to be able to bid on all the contracts that are coming out, do you not think that would be a good direction to take?
Québec Coordinator, International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers in Canada
The issue that I have there is that we're talking about specializing on one single aircraft.
Québec Coordinator, International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers in Canada
If I may, Air Canada currently has 244 airplanes that used to be maintained pretty much here and that are now maintained somewhere else.
Now we're talking about Air Canada purchasing—
Liberal
Vance Badawey Liberal Niagara Centre, ON
Hold on.
Is that because they're being built somewhere else, or is that for other reasons?
Québec Coordinator, International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers in Canada
Not necessarily. No, it's not because they're being built somewhere else. There are planes that are built in other places that used to be maintained here.
Liberal
Vance Badawey Liberal Niagara Centre, ON
Okay.
My last question, Madam Chair, if I may, is this: do you think, when you look at the overall sector, that there is a bigger issue attached to this? Is there a bigger issue attached to this, not with respect to just Bill C-10, but to actually being able to sustain the industry in a broader manner?
Québec Coordinator, International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers in Canada
It's not only MRO. It's difficult when you're not in the industry and you don't understand, but I can give you a clear example.
When you look at MRO, everybody thinks it has nothing to do with manufacturing. That is completely false. A company like Héroux-Devtek is one of the beautiful examples. They started out as an MRO company. What they used to do was take apart landing gears from other companies—because they were maintaining them and fixing them—figure out what was wrong with them, innovate, and find ways of making them better.
This company, because of the know-how they developed and all that, now build to print, and now they have a big footprint here, not just in MRO but also in manufacturing. We obtain the know-how as MROs. When you get your hands in there and you take things apart, that's when you see what's not working after so many hours of flight, so it is an integral part of the aerospace industry in Canada.
Liberal
Vance Badawey Liberal Niagara Centre, ON
Thanks, guys. That's what we need to hear. Thanks for being so candid.
Liberal
Conservative
Luc Berthold Conservative Mégantic—L'Érable, QC
Thank you very much, Madam Chair.
There is someone in the room who would like to say something. Unfortunately, we do not have the time to hear him. He sent me a copy of his letter, which is written in French. If the committee members agree, I would ask the clerk to have it translated so they can at least see what it says. We will still have the information that way, and that person, who came here to meet with us, will not be deprived of the opportunity to speak.
Do my colleagues agree?
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Judy Sgro
Thank you very much.
Well, gentlemen, we've had quite an afternoon.
Thank you so very much for being patient with us. We appreciate your coming and trying to answer the committee's questions, which were very important, and I think you did a wonderful job of answering them as directly as possible.
I now have to suspend because we still have committee business to do, so I'm going to suspend the meeting and ask that you vacate the room as quickly as possible because we'll be going in camera.
Thank you very much.
[Proceedings continue in camera]