Mr. Speaker, any discussion about regional transportation is a discussion about an essential service. It is not a luxury to travel by air when one lives in the regions.
Consideration must also be given to travel agencies and passenger safety. As the Minister said in his speech “Safety remains Transport Canada's top priority”.
How can the minister explain that, just under a year ago, on December 7 in Baie-Comeau, a plane registered to Mira Aviation in Gaspé crashed, unbeknownst to any air traffic controller?
How does the minister explain that a Nordair plane flying out of Sept-Îles crashed, forcing passengers to walk several kilometres through a wooded area to reach a road and obtain help?
How does the minister explain that, last December 7, an Air Satellite plane operating out of Baie-Comeau crashed, and that it was a six-year old girl who discovered the plane?
This is air service? This is the sort of good service Nav Canada is providing? I would not want to alarm the public, but I worry when I take a plane these days. If it was important to have air traffic controllers and firefighters in 1975, it is even more important to have them in 1999.