If I have not been listening, I will be very interested in watching the member stand in his place here later on today and vote in favour of the motion put before the House. We will then see who is going to be listening, myself or the hon. member from P.E.I.
When Air Canada was privatized, parliament in its wisdom, and I think it made the wrong decision to privatize in the first place, decided that no entity could own more than 10% of Air Canada and that a maximum of 25% of it could be owned by foreigners. We were paralleling the Bank Act in many ways where nobody could own more than 10% of a bank and no more than 25% of a bank could be owned by non-Canadian entities, institutions, pension funds, et cetera. That is what happened.
Now the Liberal Party is considering increasing the 10% rule. I wonder why. It think it is doing that because the Minister of Transport is favouring the proposition put forward by Mr. Gerald Schwartz who is the president of Onex.
It is interesting to talk about Mr. Schwartz. Mr. Schwartz is one of the most effective fundraisers in the Liberal Party anywhere in the country, contributing and raising hundreds of thousands of dollars for the Liberal Party and for candidates in that party, in particular in the province of Ontario. I think this is part of what the debate is about. If it was not about that why would the government want to change the 10% rule? Why does the government not say to Mr. Schwartz or anyone else, “If you want to make a proposal, do it in the context of existing law”.
As my friend in the Reform Party says, it is like changing the rules in the middle of a game. That is what the Liberal Party wants to do. I am surprised at the hole that the Minister of Transport and the Prime Minister have on the backbenches. Some of these people will not rise in their place and say, “All this motion is doing is supporting the existing law in the country”. Why will they not get up and do that? It is because there is another agenda.
The minister from Toronto is favouring his buddy, Gerald Schwartz from Toronto, who is a big fundraiser for the Liberal Party of Canada. That is the kind of politics that we have here today. It says an awful lot about the need for more free votes in the House of Commons where a member can get up and voice his or her concern without fear of losing a job as a parliamentary secretary or chairmanship of a committee.
I have spoken to many members of the Liberal Party in the House who are dead set against what Gerald Schwartz is trying to do, who are not at all happy with the minister from Toronto and who are unhappy that the minister is talking about changing the rules to favour one airline over the other. Where are those people today? They are not going to get up and speak in support of the motion that is before the House.
This is a very important issue. I come from Saskatchewan. I come from a smaller market where we do not have many flights. We have very few flights by Canadian Airlines. We have a few more by Air Canada. We have very few flights in all. It is a captive market. The prices are very expensive in a small market like Regina or Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. People are very concerned about the future of the airline industry.
If the 10% rule goes through, how high does it have to go before in effect we lose control of an airline industry in the country to big financial institutions or big American airlines in the United States? I want members to think about that.
Even the Conservative Party of Brian Mulroney, when it privatized Air Canada, brought in the 10% rule for a purpose. It was to make sure the airline remained in Canadian hands. That was the Conservative Party.
Here we have a Liberal Party that is now more conservative than the Conservatives and more conservative than Brian Mulroney. It is a shame.
I can see members across the way nodding their heads in agreement that it is a real shame. If this rule goes through, we are going to lose the airline industry and people know that. It is only a matter of time before the big airlines buy out the Canadian airline industry, buy out Air Canada and Canadian Airlines. Big institutions in the United States will invest money and buy out these Canadian airlines.
That is the issue today. If we had a true parliamentary democracy in the country, the vote this afternoon on this motion would, I think, be overwhelming in terms of support for the motion put forward by the Bloc Quebecois. That is why we need change in terms of how the House governs itself.
Before my time expires, I have a couple of other things to say. One thing the government should consider is the federal government itself taking an equity position in a new national airline. I would suggest about 15%. I think 15% would give the people of the country, through the federal government, enough control to make sure that the industry stays in Canadian hands, that we have jobs here for Canadians, that rural communities and smaller communities will to be served, that the price which passengers pay when they fly on an airline will be reasonable regardless of the size of the Canadian market. I think that is one thing that can be done.
I believe that sooner or later, probably sooner than later, we are going to end up with one national airline. We do not have the market to support two big national airlines. I do not think any other country in the world, except the United States and perhaps Australia, has more than one national airline. Of course Australians have to fly almost always when they leave their country. I do not think we have the market to have two big national, successful, economic airlines in this country.
If we are going to have one airline, the government should seriously look at the possibility of an equity stake in that airline. The public should have some input and some clout. The public should have a couple of people on the board of directors of the airline and have some say over the direction in which that airline will go.
Those are some of the important issues we have to be debating today. I end by saying once again that we support the motion put forward by the Bloc. I think that the 10% rule will have to stay. If it goes, we are in danger of losing not only Air Canada, but Canadian as well within a few short years into the hands of investors from the United States.