Mr. Speaker, I am very pleased to hear my hon. colleague continue to repeat, since this is not the first time that he says so in the House, that Nav Canada will have safety as its priority. It is clear to us. We said we approved the idea of creating a non profit agency. There was never any doubt about that. We think it an excellent idea.
When people came before the committee to explain the bill in more detail, we asked them whether Nav Canada's mandate provided a guarantee or a clause giving safety priority over a balanced budget. The answer given in committee was the budget had to be balanced.
According to the information I have obtained, Nav Canada's mandate gives priority to passenger, personnel and cargo safety. This fact was never mentioned in committee. If in fact it does, I wonder where it is set out, because we did not see it in the bill, and there was no mention in committee.
Now, with regard to our concern that Nav Canada will hinder the development of certain regions, I have only to look at what is happening in my own riding. Air transport has dropped, and prices have risen. In order to spend a weekend in my riding, I have to pay twice the cost of a trip between Montreal and Paris. There are extras and conditions that block the development of an airport like that of Rimouski.
On top of that there is the non profit organization that, in order to balance its budget, may forego buying certain equipment. Everything develops quickly. Today's high tech will perhaps give us the means to manage our control towers much more effectively than we do at the moment. As we know, however, the price of such things keeps going up. So perhaps Nav Canada will hinder the development of a region like mine-not only my region, but a lot of similar regions-where there are low traffic airports. Nav Canada is an operation whose prime concern may not necessarily be safety, and this is one of our basic concerns.