With respect to consultations, yes, on Bill C-49 but also on the industry cost structure. We've had discussions with the government, and not only with the current government but with previous governments. This has been a long-standing issue, of course.
The basic problem is not so much with a willingness and a general commitment on the part of Minister Garneau. Minister Garneau has told us, as I believe he has indicated to this committee, that he is looking at a phased approach. We note, however, that in November, when he unveiled his vision 2030 plan, the minister indicated that he was working towards a set of regulated performance standards for CATSA.
I can tell you that on budget day we were waiting very impatiently for the budget to be tabled so we could see what changes were actually introduced with respect to performance standards, which is a key element of the solution. Of course, performance standards without funding are meaningless. As you can imagine, we were disappointed. The budget was silent in that area.
The issue is not so much that there hasn't been consultation or there haven't been commitments. The issue is that there are competing political priorities that require the allocation of scarce dollars by this government and by all governments.
This is really fundamentally what we're saying: if you go with this as your first step, you run the risk of people saying, “Check, done, and we can move on to something else.” We believe it is fundamentally important to look at the complexity of the system and take an ecosystem or holistic approach to dealing with it, and that requires funding.
Thank you.