Good afternoon, and thank you.
My name is David Chartrand, Quebec coordinator for the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers in Canada.
As my colleague said earlier, we have serious concerns with the introduction of Bill C-10. In particular, clause 2 explicitly allows Air Canada to change the type or volume of any or all of its activities in each of the provinces, as well as the level of employment in any or all of its activities. The fact that the Liberal government has brought this bill forward with no public consultation, in an obvious attempt to render irrelevant the recent Quebec court decisions, is particularly troubling.
The Liberals are now trying to fast-track Bill C-10. Bill C-10 will simply allow Air Canada to move all of its maintenance and overall work abroad. It will undermine the entire aviation maintenance and aerospace sector in this country, thus putting at risk thousands of good-paying, high-skilled, high-tech jobs that could provide employment for Canadians for decades to come.
The current version of this bill is too vague. It takes away any leverage that any government currently has to maintain Canadian jobs in this industry. With the current legislation, Air Canada profits were $53 million in 2012, $350 million in 2013, $531 million in 2014, $1.22 billion in 2015, and in the first quarter of 2016, profits were $101 million.
This bill allows Air Canada to focus on a race to the bottom, not protecting jobs in an industry for future Canadians.