It is important to know that over the last ten years, Air Canada has already asked its employees twice to make sacrifices. It has sought protection under the Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act. The workers made sacrifices when the pension plans were reopened. Air Canada's subsidiaries negotiated dual wage scales. The wages being paid now to new employees at Air Canada, Air Canada rouge and Jazz Air are much lower than the former employees' wages.
What is at stake now, and what you need to know, is that we have lost 2,600 jobs in Canada because Air Canada decided, as I said earlier, to send jobs offshore, not to China, but to the United States. The American workers are not paid less than Canadian workers. Labour is not less expensive.
Earlier, the Air Canada representative refused to answer questions you asked him, including the question of whether the company was prepared to guarantee that the 2,400 maintenance jobs located here are going to stay here. The answer is not yes, because if the bill is passed, there will be no more maintenance jobs at Air Canada in two years. An Air Canada employee will just have to check the tires in order for the requirements in Bill C-10 to be considered to have been met.
You need to be aware of this. You are elected by Canadians so they can continue to support their families, but you are agreeing to export well-paid jobs abroad. In fact, they are not all that well paid. We have to look at things in context.
Why, in 1988, when Air Canada was privatized, did parliamentarians ask for guarantees that jobs would be preserved in Canada? Things have not changed. The other global carriers subsidize their aerospace industries. They are partners, because they want the good jobs to stay in the country.
Why is Canada not doing the same thing?