Mr. Speaker, on May 29 1996, I asked the Minister of Transport a question regarding Aéroports de Montréal's responsibility to, and I quote: "co-operate with the minister in responding to any questions, complaints or comments from the public regarding the airport".
Following that question, the Minister of Environment wrote in a letter that he was open to impact studies on the issue of transferring international flights from Mirabel to Dorval.
The minister only has to use his power under the act, namely to ask ADM to co-operate with the minister in responding to any questions, complaints or comments from the public regarding the airport. Thus the minister has full responsibility. The minister cannot bury his head in the sand. He must obtain from ADM clarifications on the economic and environmental impacts of the present situation.
All stakeholders in the Montreal airport area as well as those of Quebec as a whole want this situation to be clarified because this is a major economic decision.
This is the thrust of representations made by the hon. members for Blainville-Deux-Montagnes, Laurentides and Argenteuil-Papineau. Recently, there has been evidence that the inaction of the Department of Transport has contributed to the legal mess we are now in.
Representations made by the Coalition pour le maintien des services à Mirabel were received favourably by the courts. Increasingly in the future, unless the minister takes the political solution, that is to allow hearings on the Aéroports de Montréal decision, we will be bogged down right where we are, because the courts will take a long time to reach a decision. This will have harmful effects on the future of the Montreal airports, both Dorval and Mirabel.
After all these months have passed, will the minister finally get around to implementing the recommendation made by the Minister of the Environment: an impact study, an overall assessment of the situation and public hearings to enable the public to find out what the best solution for international flights will be?
Will the somewhat clandestine decision made by Aéroports de Montréal be maintained, or will we be able to find out exactly what the impacts of that decision will be?