moved:
Motion No. 5
That Bill C-26, in Clause 17, be amended by replacing line 29 on page 21 with the following:
“to which are attached more than 10% of the”
Motion No. 6
That Bill C-26, in Clause 17, be amended
(a) by replacing lines 1 to 3 on page 22 with the following:
“than 25% of the votes that may ordinarily be”
(b) by replacing lines 14 to 16 on page 22 with the following:
“votes to not more than 25% of the total number of votes”
(c) by deleting lines 18 to 22 on page 22.
Mr. Speaker, Motions Nos. 5 and 6 in Group No. 2 have been up for much discussion during the whole airline merger debate. They specifically deal with the ownership of shares.
Motion No. 5 deals with the 10% ownership share in Air Canada. We all know why the 10% was initially put into the first Air Canada Public Participation Act legislation. It was to ensure the broad ownership of shares within Air Canada and to ensure that Canadians had an opportunity to be very involved and to give a chance to people throughout the nation to do that.
Motion No. 6 deals with the 25% ownership rule. I propose to keep the Air Canada share ownership limit at 10%. The new legislation changes it to 15%. I want to entrench the foreign ownership limit, currently at 25% in the legislation. As was indicated by the member from the Canadian Alliance, they do not care one way or another if foreign companies literally own everything in Canada. They make no bones about it.
Quite frankly, I do care. I care that Canadians have control over crucial elements in society; over transportation that needs to be provided to all of Canada, not just Vancouver, Toronto, Calgary, Edmonton and Halifax. We are talking about the whole country. We want to make sure that we have control over companies that benefit from the opportunity of providing a service in Canada. As a result, we believe that in a crucial industry such as our air industry there should be limits.
Right now the Minister of Transport and cabinet have the power to increase the foreign ownership cap up to 49%. The New Democratic Party is not opposed to increasing foreign investment in Canada but we think the decision should be made in consultation with parliament.
It is interesting to note that members of the Canadian Alliance are always saying that everything should come to parliament and that the government should not be doing this or that. In this particular case, because it is allowing foreign ownership to take over everything, they do not care if it comes to parliament. Let the governor in council order it up to 49%.
Entrenching the 25% limit in the legislation would require another act of parliament in the future to change it, guaranteeing that it would be voted on and that all Canadians would have a say as to whether or not they wanted to see ownership of their airline either increased to 49% or increased to 100%. At least Canadians would have a say through their members of parliament.
Bill C-26 will increase Air Canada share ownership from 10% to 15%. We propose leaving it at the 10% which was formerly in the legislation. Raising this to 15% opens the door for a non-hostile takeover attempt. Many industry stakeholders have expressed concerns about allowing Air Canada to fall under the sway of a dominant shareholder. We agree with stakeholders that the public interest is best served if Air Canada remains under the control of a broad cross-section of Canadian shareholders not a single dominant shareholder. This motion would close the door to that dominant shareholder scenario.
Further, it is of real importance to recognize that Canadian taxpayers over the years have been very supportive of Canadian Airlines and Air Canada. As a result, I do not think we should ever look at Air Canada or Canadian Airlines, or any company that has had much support from Canadian taxpayers, the same as any other, just up for sale, willy-nilly to whomever. Canadians do have a real interest in the corporation and should have a say over what happens.