Madam Speaker, I am pleased to speak today to this bill at the third reading stage. I have already had an opportunity to speak to it at the report state and I must state, regretfully, that there has not been much change in what I have to say, because most of the amendments proposed by the Bloc have been rejected. What I have to say has not, therefore, changed a great deal, nor has what I already said had very much influence on the debate. When in a minority position in a democratic system, we do what the others tell us to do, when they feel like it, when it suits them.
That is the democratic principle for minorities, and a minority is what we are in this House. Now, where are we, exactly, with this bill? I want to give a quick overview of the key points. I will start by pointing out before I go any further that something is happening in Canada at this time which merits our attention. Canada is selling its ports, its airports, its bridges, its rail lines, its rail cars, its navigation systems. A close look indicates that we are perhaps in the process of holding a huge clearance sale.
This legislation provides the legal framework for turning Transport Canada's navigation system over to Nav Canada, a not for profit corporation, as it has just been described, created under part II of the Canada Corporations Act. It is a follow up to the December 8, 1995 agreement in principle between Transports Canada and Nav Canada, selling the system for $1.5 billion.
The key principles of Nav Canada-four points set out in the Act-are that it is to be operated as a legally constituted, self-regulated entity operating on a cost-recovery basis. The air transportation tax levied on passengers when they purchase tickets from or to a destination in Canada will be eliminated in two years. During that time, the federal government will make transitional payments to Nav Canada based on anticipated ATT revenues. Nav Canada will have a commercial mandate to run and manage its operations according to recognized commercial practices. Nav Canada will set the charges for its services so as to recover all its costs from users.
My colleague from Rimouski-Témiscouata pointed out that military flights would not have to pay these charges and that Nav Canada would offer employees transferred from the public service the continuation of current collective agreements and the granting of successor rights to bargaining agents, as well as equivalent working conditions and benefits.
The purpose of this bill is to privatize and commercialize air services in Canada by incorporating Nav Canada. Creating this organization is, of course, part of Transport Canada's overall strategy to modernize transport services in this country. The federal government tells us we must support the principles of greater effectiveness and lower prices.
But it is easy to detect the real reason why the federal government wants to create Nav Canada. Its main concern is really to make air services profitable at the expense of safety and regional development. We emphasized this in our speeches throughout consideration of this bill.
The previous Minister of Transport himself stated that the government could no longer afford to pay for adequate air services. We therefore wonder, because it has not been proven yet, if the new corporation will be able to do better. For the moment, they are busy selling off and privatizing, although they have no idea where this will take us at the end of the day.
The government therefore must create an organization that will have on its board of directors representatives of all major airlines in Canada at the expense of small regional carriers, as my colleague from Lac-Saint-Jean pointed out a while ago, when he talked about the impact privatization will have on Air Alma, for example. We had hoped that this negative aspect of the bill would be reviewed and corrected along the way.
Unfortunately, it was not, in spite of the many representations made by small carriers. It is clear that only major carriers like Canadian and Air Canada will have a representative with any decision power of Nav Canada's board of directors, and this of course because our major carriers are in the majority. As my colleague, the hon. member for Rimouski-Témiscouata explained, they will probably make decisions based on their own interests and needs, at the expense of small carriers.
But, as we know, the needs of major carriers are often quite different from those of smaller ones. For example, major carriers would like fly over fees to be lower than landing fees, while small carriers are calling for just the opposite. This tends to suggest that decisions on certain matters will require debate on conflicting interests on a board where small carriers will always be the minority.
I am therefore concerned about the impact this will have on the economy, tourism and regional development, since small carriers operate mostly and for the most part at the regional level. As you know, the regions are mainly served by small regional carriers and the fact that these small carriers will not be represented adequately and that their voice will not be heard when decisions are made can only impede long term regional development.
Nav Canada will have a monopoly on air navigation services. It will slap users with fees and have total control over the fee structure. How can we not predict or expect the financial interests of major carriers to take precedence over everything else in the long run, including public interest and safety? But the need remains to ensure that someone is still accountable for safety standards, which must be the top priority at all times.
I cannot see how the government could oppose this motion tabled just recently, when the sponsor of the bill himself, a minister, stated in a speech that Transport Canada's top priority was to maintain and, whenever possible, to improve the safety and security of Canadians. Yet, there is not much said about safety in this bill. I do hope government members will stand by the statements made by one of their ministers, even though what we saw and heard in recent weeks about this bill might lead us to think otherwise.
It must be understood that Nav Can's board of directors will be made up of people from the private sector. These people are, of course, interested in having a profitable venture, in making profits. When they sit on the board, their primary concern is the impact of the decisions on their own companies. This is only normal.
It is obvious that this bill is primarily about financial considerations. This is why the Bloc Quebecois withholds its support for Bill C-20 until a reference is included about safety. This legislation favours financial security, instead of the safety of airline personnel, passengers and the general public.
The air navigation sector does not allow for any mistake, because mistakes cost lives. This is an area regarding which the federal government can never elude its responsibilities. The government has an obligation to give priority to safety. Yet, there is no reference in this bill to such an obligation or to any commitment to this effect. This is why the hon. member for Kamouraska-Rivière-du-Loup, seconded by the hon. member for Blainville-Deux-Montagnes, proposed an amendment, which I will read because it accurately reflects the Bloc's position: "That this House declines to give third reading to Bill C-20, An Act respecting the commercialization of civil air navigation services, because the Bill does not give the safety of passengers, airline personnel and the public priority over all other considerations in business decisions made by Nav Canada". Yet, we are at third reading stage now.
For some months now, we have been seeing an increasing tendency to give overriding priority to financial considerations in all decisions, whether governmental or quasi-governmental. We see it in discussions about human rights violations in certain countries, when ministers and even our own Prime Minister regularly rise in their place to say that, in the final analysis, what matters is business law, and other interests will have to take a back seat.
This makes us think that, in the bill before us, safety issues are of secondary importance. That is why we have a lot of trouble swallowing it.
I would like to mention that we are in agreement with the actual principle of privatizing air navigation services, but that we will still
vote against this bill, because it does not take into account the safety principles that must override all else.
We proposed amendments along these lines, amendments that we considered important and on which there was unanimous agreement, in principle at least, but which were nonetheless rejected. All we are asking is that these principles be clearly set out in the bill, that they be part of the preamble, and that they serve as guidelines for the operation of Nav Canada. Apparently we are not going to get this, and we will be voting against the bill.