Mr. Speaker, I would indicate at the outset that I will be splitting my time with the hon. member for Kings—Hants.
I am very pleased to rise to take part in the debate, a debate which I think has caused a great deal of uneasiness. There have obviously been even elements of consternation in the debate today.
As we have seen in a number of instances, it appears that the government is now lapsing into crisis management. We have seen it in the fisheries as a result of the Marshall decision. We have seen it in the debate over the pay equity settlement. Let us hope that this particular situation is not going wind up before the courts. The hon. member who just spoke has indicated, quite rightly, that we as legislators have to deal with situations such as this.
I want to congratulate the Bloc for bringing this motion forward. The timeliness of it is extremely important. It is an issue that is moving along at breakneck pace and one which has not been handled particularly well by the government.
We will be supporting the motion because the motives behind the proposal to increase the ownership limit of Air Canada, the 10% rule, and the 10% public participation rule, are very important and credible and should be considered free of all outside influences. The 10% rule is one of the issues that is at the very crux of this debate, as well as the confidence that Canadians have in the deals which are being proposed and the solutions to this crisis in our airline that are being brought forward and supported, for the most part, by the government.
The current proposal calls for a change to the 10% rule. This is one change that would be completely influenced by one proposal over another on the issue of merger. It shows and smacks of favouritism.
The process itself is one that has been fraught with a great deal of misinformation and a great deal of confusion. The government's timing of the announcement with respect to the suspension of the Competition Act was something else that caused a great deal of concern on the part of all Canadians and a great deal of concern in particular in the business community because it has broad, far-reaching implications for all business practitioners in the country.
The proposal to change the 10% rule at the beginning of the 90 day negotiation period might have been acceptable. It might have been acceptable. It would certainly have been more acceptable than what we have occurring in this instance, which is, 16 days before the end of the 90 day suspension of the Competition Act, we have the government basically moving the goal posts, changing the rules of engagement and allowing, without any doubt, a very undue and unfair advantage to one of the proponents, one of the proposed businesses that looked to engage and take over what is our national airline, or our two national airlines.
To put this in its proper context, with 16 days to go in the 90 day window for negotiation, the government suddenly, out of the blue, announced a plan to change the 10% ownership rule. That left absolutely no time for any serious offer or any serious business to come forward and develop, or at least put into the mix a bid with respect to this offer. The new proposal, if it were to come, would be at an unfair advantage. Even if a proposal could be made within the 16 day period, it would be completely unfair compared to a proposal made by, in this case, one of the proponents in the time period it has had. The timing itself is something that is extremely suspect and extremely tenuous when it comes down to the issue of fairness and competition, which is what is at the very root of this issue.
On the issue of the 10% rule, the proposal to change the 10% rule at this late date strongly demonstrates that the government is flying by the seat of its pants, improvising daily as to how to react or respond to the various businesses that are currently involved. As I said before, the crux of the issue is that there could have been more. In a competitive business world what we would surely want when it comes to our national airline is to have the best proposals and the best options to choose from. It is a very fundamental motherhood issue.
As the hon. member for Cumberland—Colchester put it, in terms that Canadians can understand, if we are going out to Canadian Tire to buy a toaster, we are not going to buy one brand of toaster without looking at the various options that are available. Compare that to having national airlines worth billions of dollars and the suggestion that we should simply buy this one because it has been proposed and it is the only option that is available because the government tells us so. Behind the scenes we know that is not the case. This is not a situation where there was fair competition, where the rules that applied to one business applied to all. It is at the very fundamental root of the Competition Act that this is the case.
The Competition Act was suspended. The rules were pulled away and, very curiously, the minister asked that the bureau look at a very narrow part of this deal. He has chosen to take out of the mix the normal scrutiny that would be applied by the bureau and he has, for all intents and purposes, emasculated the Competition Bureau and given it a very specific mandate as to what it should look at in the context of this deal. He has said: “The minister's option is the preferred option and therefore I am going to point you in that direction. I am not going to ask you to look at the entire situation as you normally would if the Competition Act were in full force and effect, but I am going to suggest that you take this particular aspect of your job and you follow it. In the meantime, I will continue to oversee the situation”. It was a very paternalistic and narrow view taken by the minister. The effect at the end of the day is that we may wind up with a dominant carrier approach which will not serve Canadians well.
One of the other fundamental motherhood issues is how this will affect jobs, how it will affect the employment situation in the country. The Canadian aviation industry includes thousands of employees in all regions of the country. Again I congratulate the Bloc for bringing the matter forward, but this is not limited to any one region of the country. It has drastic implications in the west, in the east, in the north and all over the country. More than anything else, this is something the government has to constantly have at the front of its mind and hopefully on its priority list, as to how it examines, manages or mismanages this issue.
What is the effect going to be on jobs in this country? There are dozens of smaller airlines that will obviously be affected as well, and there are hundreds of airports and hundreds of communities, in terms of being isolated in the service that will be provided to them, which will be affected in a profound way if this issue is not resolved in a fair and equitable manner.
This is not a new situation. It is something the government surely should have seen coming down the pike, but again, somehow, for some reason which is beyond me and beyond the understanding of many Canadians, the government is not reacting. It is simply improvising and reacting in a day to day way, as opposed to having some sort of concrete or deliberate path that it is following, giving Canadians the confidence they should have in their national government.
I again hearken back to the issue of employment. The government is proposing to completely restructure and revamp our national airline in 90 days. That is less than the gestation period of a mayfly. Somehow the government wants to completely change our national airline and asks Canadians to have faith in the process, all the while changing the rules of engagement as it goes along.
This is not something that should instil a great deal of confidence in Canadians. It is something we should slow down and something we should look at extremely carefully. We should ensure that those who are in the know are actually making the right decisions.
Part of the problem here is that we do not know who is in the know. We do not know what information is available. We do not know when the information was released that the Competition Act would be suspended. We do not what information was exchanged between the various airlines prior to the suspension of the Competition Act.
We must be extremely diligent in the way we proceed in the next number of days, months and years because the effect is going to be profound and potentially devastating on communities in the country.
I wish Godspeed to the minister and to the transportation committee as they proceed in their deliberations because this is a very serious issue. I am hoping and putting trust in those members of the committee that they are going to hold to account the government on this matter.