Mr. Speaker, I have to say that for the last nine months my officials have been working with Air Canada and with Canadian Airlines to strike a balance on new international air routes.
Those discussions were quite fruitful in some cases such as the trade-off for Canadian to serve Osaka from Vancouver and for daily service to Hong Kong by Air Canada from Toronto. On other issues there was disagreement.
The government believes that Canada needs a competitive airline industry. We believe in the viability of two air companies. We want to make sure that any new routes are fair and equitable to both companies.