Mr. Speaker, it is a pleasure to speak to the motion put forward by the Bloc Quebecois. It is a very interesting motion, which affects most of us because of the employees of both Air Canada and Canadian Airlines who live in our ridings. This issue is exceedingly important to them.
Part of their concern is that they want to know the truth about what is going on. Unfortunately what we have seen is a polarization amongst the employees of both companies, so much so that it is causing an extraordinary amount of acrimony.
I would say, and I am sure many members would agree, that Canadian carriers, both Air Canada and Canadian Airlines, have the finest staff, as well as some of the best planes in the world. Oftentimes Canadians wonder what we can do, as opposed to the rest of the world, and we need not look any further than those two carriers to see Canada excelling in the airline transport industry.
Having said that, there are things we need to do to ensure we are not left with an airline industry in disarray, which would affect the employees and especially consumers who want the assurance that whatever comes of these discussions they will be protected and not left with a monopoly and the possibility of price gouging. They want a fair and equitable decision for the employees of both airlines.
Let us look at the issue put forth by the Bloc Quebecois, which concerns the 10% limitation on ownership of Air Canada. We already have a 25% foreign restriction on the ownership of a Canadian carrier. That is a good thing.
If one professes to believe in allowing the market to decide, and allowing strong competition, why should we prohibit any individual or group in this country from having greater ownership of Air Canada? What is so wrong with having a person or group own a larger share of Air Canada or Canadian Airlines, or any company for that matter?
It is not right for the government to impose those kinds of restrictions upon a private carrier. It limits and creates a barrier to that company becoming as effective as it could be.
On the issue of competition, as I am sure most people here would agree, we would like to see two carriers, competitive, healthy and profitable, being able to take on not only other groups within Canada but also around the world, and win, which they can do.
The sad state of affairs today, with both of these companies having trouble, is that we are looking toward a merger. As my colleague, our critic, has mentioned before very eloquently, rather than having a merger take place in an environment of chaos, let us do it in a relatively controlled fashion so that market forces can take place, but we can be left at the end of the day with a merger that will strengthen the airline industry in our country. I think that is what we all agree ought to happen.
We need a level playing field, so that both groups can compete or both groups can merge.
The truth must come out about what is really going on. The issue of debt levels is very important in terms of how investors look at both companies and there has been a lot of misinformation about what the debt levels are in both companies.
According to the most recent information we have, Canadian's debt is around $1 billion and Air Canada's is around $9 billion. Many of the employees of both companies do not know that. They have been fed different lines as the political battles take place over the merger of the two companies.
As our eloquent transport critic has mentioned, we want to ensure that if we are left with a single carrier there will not be price gouging and there will be legislation in place to protect the public from it.
On the issue of service to small communities, given the nature of our country, its broad scope and sparse populations, we need access to adequate transportation facilities, in particular by air. We want to make sure that people in remote areas will be serviced properly and we will press the Minister of Transport to make sure that whatever comes of this there will be consideration in the legislation to ensure that those people living in remote areas will be protected.
The employees of Air Canada have a legitimate concern about their rights. Because they have a younger staff, if or when they merge with Canadian Airlines, they fear they will be taken over and put at the bottom of the barrel. That would not be fair and it would not be equitable.
On the other hand, Canadian Airlines' workers fear that if they are to be merged with Air Canada, which has a larger number of employees, their numbers will diminish and they will lose employees, which would be equally unfortunate.
We ask the Minister of Transport to ensure that there will be fair and equitable treatment of the employees of both Air Canada and Canadian Airlines.
On the issue of the proposed legislation to review the airline merger, there are a couple of points that we would like to put before the Minister of Transport. First, we take offence to and oppose the Competition Bureau being reduced from its legislative role to an advisory role. We would also like to see the transport committee take a larger role in this and advise the minister as to how this should take place. Members of that committee should be involved. The Competition Bureau, with its rules and regulations governing competition within the country, should not be suspended for this particular merger. That is not correct. It also adds an element of partiality which I know the minister would not like to see in this particular merger, given the well known connections that he and the government have with Onex Corporation. However, that should not preclude Onex from having a fair go at being able to merge these groups.
In closing I would like to say that members on all sides of the House are very much in favour of ensuring that whatever comes out of the Air Canada-Canadian Airlines trade war, which is what it is, we will be left at the end of the day with a strong airline industry which will be profitable and able to continue to take on competition and win in the aggressive airline transportation industry.