I thank Alexandre for his comments, because for anybody who witnesses someone losing a job, it's not pleasant. It's not nice. The dislocation to families and to communities is substantial.
As we went through the witnesses who appeared before us to give us background on this, a couple of things came out of this.
There is the argument that Air Canada is in a highly competitive environment, and they are being required to do things that their competitors are not, while their competitors are getting work done here in Canada, including heavy maintenance.
No one was able to tell us how many of the 2,600 who had been employed at Aveos had found new employment, because at that time when Aveos went down, Air Canada was required to find somebody else to do that work. Some of that work did gravitate to other companies, but it was a concern to some of us that the existing Canadian companies didn't necessarily bid on that work very aggressively. That was also a concern.
We also see from information provided by the witnesses that schools are continuing to turn out graduates in all lines of maintenance, including heavy maintenance. We heard from industry representatives that in their businesses, let's face it, sometimes things are a little tight, but nonetheless they're hanging in there, and one even seemed to be extremely successful.
The reasons for guaranteeing jobs when the law was first passed have changed substantially. The company that was privatized way back when no longer exists. You could make an argument that the law we're being asked to uphold was broken as of the moment they sold their heavy maintenance division to somebody else. The fact that company failed to make it while other Canadian companies remained, and remained viable, suggests that it was more of a management issue, and that the opportunities and the jobs are still there.
When you consider that putting one company at a competitive disadvantage may indeed jeopardize more jobs, and when you consider that the industry at stake here remains in not bad shape—it could be better, but it's not bad—then this is where the centres of excellence come in. With a highly specialized aircraft like the C series, we have an opportunity here to put the stake in the ground and this will be the place where airlines from across the world will bring their aircraft to have them maintained, including the heavy maintenance, and the airframes, and the line maintenance, although line maintenance can happen anywhere.
The reason for the Air Canada Public Participation Act in the first place has changed quite substantially, and the conditions have changed quite substantially. Based on what the witnesses told us, I think we remain convinced that times have changed enough that there are opportunities for those workers in the existing aerospace industry, as well as in the industry that will develop, especially as the C series gains even more success as it seems to be doing. That's one of the reasons why after all this time, as difficult as it may have been, it is probably time to move on.