Transport Committee on Jan. 28th, 2021

[The Chair, Liberal, Vance Badawey]

Thank you, Mr. Bruno.

Thank you, Mr. Sidhu.

We're now going to move on to our third round. We have Mr. Shipley for five minutes, followed by Mr. El-Khoury. For two and a half minutes, we have Mr. Barsalou-Duval, followed by Mr. Cannings.

We will start off with Mr. Shipley.

Mr. Shipley, the floor is yours for five minutes.

[Doug Shipley, Conservative, Barrie—Springwater—Oro-Medonte, ON]

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you to all of the witnesses for being here today.

My first line of questioning is predominantly going to be for Mr. Giguere, so thank you, Mr. Giguere.

We're talking a lot about airlines and airplanes. That's all the metal, the engines and that type of stuff. I would like to talk about the human toll of this.

Today is Bell Let's Talk Day, which means we're talking about some mental health issues. I reviewed a stack of letters. I didn't read every single one, and I'm not going to say I did. We had a large pile of them, mainly from pilots, not all from your line, but many different lines in Canada. They were heartbreaking, quite frankly, just devastating letters. I can only imagine what some of your employees are going through.

I want to know how your employees are dealing with their mental health these days. Are there programs being offered to them right now to deal with this?

[Rob Giguere]

First off, thank you for the question.

We have, in our case, 600 members who are laid off, many other members who are inactive, and of course our large contingent who are not working nearly as hard as they can. They see not just their profession, but their avocation, slipping away without any support. It's vitally important that we work together to solve the problem of [Technical difficulty—Editor] in the transportation industry and this vital network. In terms of the health of our [Technical difficulty—Editor].

[Doug Shipley, Conservative, Barrie—Springwater—Oro-Medonte, ON]

Mr. Chair, could we maybe just wait one moment? I'm not getting his answer and I think this is important.

[The Chair, Liberal, Vance Badawey]

Yes. Mr. Giguere, you're cutting in and out. You might want to pop off and pop back on again.

I'm going to go back to Mr. Shipley.

Mr. Shipley, the floor is yours.

[Doug Shipley, Conservative, Barrie—Springwater—Oro-Medonte, ON]

Thank you, Chair.

I hope we can get time to go back to that answer, because I think this is one of the most important answers we can get today, but we....

He's popped back on. Go ahead, Chair, if you want to—

[The Chair, Liberal, Vance Badawey]

Mr. Giguere, can you pop your mike back on again?

[Rob Giguere]

Yes.

[The Chair, Liberal, Vance Badawey]

There you go. I think we have you back.

Mr. Shipley, if you don't mind, we're going to go back to Mr. Giguere.

Mr. Giguere, could you start from the top, giving your answer, because you were cutting in and out?

[Rob Giguere]

I'm sorry. Thank you for the opportunity.

We have a significant number of our members laid off. For pilots, it's more than just a job. It's a profession; it's an avocation. To have that taken away from you when you have a career in front of you with a tremendous opportunity.... The network that our airline flies is remarkable, the connectivity that a small country like Canada provides. The airline industry, the aviation industry, the air sector in Canada has safety standards, technical expertise and customer service that are recognized worldwide. This is what we are all passionate about, and we need to make sure that we protect that and take care of it so that on the other side of this pandemic we can take our rightful place at the top of the industry and not be disadvantaged against others who have been in a position where they've kept their industry going.

In terms of the health of our members, we're very sensitive to it and we watch it carefully. Of course, we feel every day for those of our members who are on furlough, and of course those who are waiting to see what's around the next corner for the airline industry. We're anxious and hopeful that the government will make a move and put forward the aid that we've heard about for some time.

[The Chair, Liberal, Vance Badawey]

Thank you, Mr. Giguere.

Mr. Shipley, just an FYI, I stopped the time for that answer, so I didn't take the time off twice for two answers. I'm going to start the time back up for you right now.

Mr. Shipley, the floor is yours.

[Doug Shipley, Conservative, Barrie—Springwater—Oro-Medonte, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair. That was very fair.

Thank you for that answer, Mr. Giguere. As I said, we can talk about all the things, but really it comes down to the fact that people are the important thing here and we want to make sure they're looked after, so thank you for that.

You can tell your members that we're fighting for them, and hopefully we'll all get through it together. I know everybody is getting tired of hearing that, but it's not just lip service. We mean that, so you could pass that message along.

I want to talk a little more about your employees. In their training—and it's been touched on a little today—do pilots not have to fly a certain number of hours a year to keep up their certification—I don't want to use the word “licence”—or whatever it is? How are they maintaining that if they're not working?

[Rob Giguere]

Yes, they do. There are requirements that are stated by Transport Canada and enabled through our various training programs. With the reduced flying, we have many pilots who have been put on idle, essentially, so although we have the 600 furloughed, we have others who have not flown in some time and are waiting for an opportunity. Of course, they don't fly until they're fully trained and fully qualified, which requires the retraining program: back to simulator, back to line indoctrination with a training and check captain, and then they can be put back into service.

This is why we talk about keeping the industry alive, to make sure that those highly skilled individuals maintain their skills, keep their skills, so that when this pandemic is over, Canada can be proud of its aviation sector and we can take our rightful place in the world as we have in the past and connect the world to Canada and Canada to the world. This applies as well to all the regional airports in Canada that feed into those international networks. They're all vitally important.

You've seen me having trouble today with connectivity. That's what the airline is about—it's about connectivity, connecting people together, people to industry, people to families, people to their neighbourhoods, people to their loved ones around the world, connecting communities and cultures together.

[The Chair, Liberal, Vance Badawey]

Thank you, Mr. Giguere.

Thank you, Mr. Shipley.

[Doug Shipley, Conservative, Barrie—Springwater—Oro-Medonte, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, Vance Badawey]

We're now going to move on to Mr. El-Khoury of the Liberal Party.

Mr. El-Khoury, the floor is yours for five minutes.

[Fayçal El-Khoury, Liberal, Laval—Les Îles, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I want to welcome our witnesses.

I have a special welcome for Ms. Elizabeth May, my dear friend.

Welcome, Elizabeth.

Before I begin, I want to talk about something. Yesterday, I watched an interview with Mr. Mueller that really impressed me. I was pleased to learn that Canada's aerospace industry ranks fifth in the world. Canada also leads the world in terms of quality of life, in part because of its economic stability. We're also pioneers in preferential market access. All these factors combined provide hope that efforts will be made to change, improve and promote our great industry.

My first question is for you, Mr. Mueller. Do you think that financial assistance for airlines should depend on the airlines' compliance with their contracts with your members?

[Mike Mueller]

I think anything that supports our members is a good thing. As we've talked about before, and as I mentioned in my opening remarks, support for the airlines is also critical, because at the end of the day it's the airlines, at least on the civil side, that buy the planes we produce, repair the planes they fly and make the parts that go into them. It's critically important.

On the thing you spoke about—the global interconnectivity and the global supply chains—it is absolutely key to support those supply chains and support the industry in Canada. Whichever different platform they are on, anything that goes to support that I think would be well received.

[Fayçal El-Khoury, Liberal, Laval—Les Îles, QC]

Very good. Thank you.

I have a second question for you.

Have your members received the Canada emergency wage subsidy? How has the subsidy helped to retain the employees whom you represent?

[Mike Mueller]

As I mentioned before, the wage subsidy is critically important for our industry. It has been beneficial in keeping employees, and it has been a lifeline. However, as I've talked about before, in order to really position the aerospace industry, number one, we need to have the airlines flying again, and two, the support that's being given by other countries to their domestic industry is really going to position Canada.... You talked about global competitiveness. We need to be globally competitive. We need to be there. We need the support of government in order to compete internationally.

I often say that in the forestry sector you can't move a forest out of Canada, at least not easily, but for the aerospace sector, once those work packages leave Canada, they aren't coming back. As we've talked about amongst all the different witnesses here, at the end of the day, the aerospace industry isn't this magical thing. It's the people working in it and how we support the people working in it to ensure that we have the cutting-edge technology, so as to ensure that when the recovery comes, the Canadian industry is well positioned to take advantage of that and also contribute to the recovery.

[Fayçal El-Khoury, Liberal, Laval—Les Îles, QC]

Very good. Thanks.

I have a third question for you.

Do you think that the government must quickly respond to changing public health needs? I'm thinking, for example, of the emergence of new variants of the virus.

[Mike Mueller]

Absolutely, yes. I think everyone would agree that the decisions need to be based on science. That being said, a strong aerospace industry in Canada contributes not only to the search and rescue helicopters that are flying, but to the military operations that are going on, and we need to make sure that we pay attention to it.

The other thing I would just mention is that I think there is a safe way to go about it. As we've seen in multiple studies internationally, aerospace and airline travel is a safe mode of transportation if the correct precautions and measures are in place, which of course would be the first priority of our industry. The first priority of our industry is of course the health and safety of Canadians.

[The Chair, Liberal, Vance Badawey]

Thank you, Mr. Mueller.

Thank you, Mr. El-Khoury.

We're now going to move on to the Bloc Québécois for two and a half minutes.

Mr. Barsalou-Duval, the floor is yours.

[Xavier Barsalou-Duval, Bloc, Pierre-Boucher—Les Patriotes—Verchères, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

My question is for Ms. Pasher and Mr. Stanford from the Atlantic Canada Airports Association.

In Quebec, we have a major regional air transportation issue. We want to ensure that all regions are served. The situation in eastern Quebec may look, to some extent, like the issue encountered in Atlantic Canada.

A number of concerns have been raised in eastern Quebec. In particular, we want to ensure that, when business resumes, the government's assistance and policies will primarily allow for a regional service, but also for competition among carriers. We often end up in a situation where Air Canada holds a monopoly, even though other small carriers can provide good service.

Do you share this concern in Atlantic Canada?

[Derrick Stanford]

I can take this.

If I understand the question, you're worried about the ability to have regional air carriers, as well as what the competitive landscape would look like.