Mr. Speaker, Transport Canada is now in the process of watering down the
regulations governing the number of flight attendants required on commercial flights. The plan is to go from the current Canadian ratio of one for every 40 passengers to the American ratio of one for every 50.
Even before bringing forward new regulations in the House, the government has acted unilaterally by using ministerial exemptions to reduce the number of attendants required on certain aircraft.
I ask the Minister of Transport to listen to the advice of Canadian flight attendants, who have been telling him that the weakening of regulations will have a serious impact on the safety of the travelling public. The American standards are based on tests that are highly artificial and underestimate the need to have safety personnel on board in real life accidents.
The only benefits of harmonizing our standards downward to the American standards will appear on the bottom line of the airline industry, whose costs will be cut at the expense of safety.
I hope the minister will let the airline attendants' reasoned advice penetrate his remarkable fetish for American stylederegulation and reconsider the direction of this policy.