Thank you very much. Good afternoon. My name is Debi Daviau and I'm the president of the Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada. We represent over 60,000 professionals across Canada.
I'd like to thank you for this opportunity to present our concerns about the situation at Nav Canada and how best to ensure its continued viability. I'm accompanied here today by my senior adviser, Emily Watkins, and we are both available to answer questions after the presentations.
Our union represents some 475 engineers and information technology specialists at Nav Canada. Thanks to them, the Canadian automated air traffic management system is one of the most advanced and integrated flight data-processing systems in the world. They are essential to providing services to commercial and general aviation from facilities throughout Canada. These include air traffic control, flight information, weather briefings, aeronautical information services, airport advisory services and electronic aids to navigation, and they are responsible for enterprise security and cyber activities.
Since last fall, some 50 of our members have been given notice of their surplus status. I'd like to assure committee members that we are very much aware that Nav Canada is losing millions of dollars every day because of the dramatic drop in air traffic over the past year, and we understand that management had to scramble to put together a plan to deal with that, but much more needs to be done. The government must take immediate and decisive action to keep the company in business, protect the safety of air travel in Canada and protect the jobs of people who ensure that safety. Continued cuts to personnel and the closure of facilities across the country are simply not the way to do that.
An important reality for all members of Parliament and indeed all Canadians to consider is that air traffic control in Canada has only one provider, Nav Canada. Responsibility over air traffic control is not done by any other entity in Canada. Nav Canada has no counterparts, no competitors. The federal government needs to ensure that it has the support now that it requires to be able to resume its operations when air traffic returns to pre-pandemic levels.
We have many concerns regarding the impact the cuts will have on the long-term health of air safety and of the company. Reductions in services and personnel have resulted in Canadians expressing safety concerns about their air travel. Remote and northern areas are heavily dependent on air traffic for many aspects of their daily lives—food, supplies, medical care and travel in and out of their communities. They cannot be left without this critical access.
Many facilities have been or are scheduled to be closed across Canada. Many more are under review. In what remains a male-dominated environment, many of the laid-off staff are women, and often the most recently hired employees. Gender equality and diversity have suffered.
Nav Canada is a company that not many Canadians are familiar with, a fact that actually speaks volumes to the level of service and the stellar safety record it has enjoyed. It has not gotten much attention, but that's a good thing.
However, now we have to talk about the company because it needs the help of government and it needs it now. To address the current realities, we need the following.
The government must take immediate and decisive action to support Nav Canada by providing sufficient emergency funding to get it through this crisis. This must take the form of a grant in the amount of $750 million for each of the next two years to preserve and restore its workforce and continue to deliver its key services. A grant is the only viable government financial support option as the cost-recovery model used by Nav Canada would require it to charge higher fees to airlines that are already devastated by the pandemic. The grant must be accompanied by a moratorium on layoffs. The skills, expertise and experience that have kept our skies safe must be retained. They're the key to the successful recovery of air travel and related industries in Canada. Every effort must be made to rehire the former employees once the air travel industry resumes normal activities. Such specialized staff cannot be found and trained overnight.
Given the airlines' and related industries' huge impact on the Canadian economy, and the tens of thousands of direct and indirect jobs affected, I'd like to conclude by emphasizing how further inaction will only slow down Canada's post-pandemic recovery. I urge the government to step in right away.
Thank you for your time. I would be happy to answer your questions.