Mr. Speaker, I hear my friend from Hamilton West, the committee chair and the former parliamentary secretary, waxing eloquently about Hamilton. As a Torontonian I am happy that we can finally get those people from Hamilton to keep quiet about their airport because they have air service. They will have scheduled service and more flights will go in there. It is now the biggest cargo operator in all of Canada. Let us not have any more crocodile tears about Hamilton, I say to my colleague from Hamilton West.
We have all these benefits: the communities are protected, the employees are protected and an international airline is growing. The only thing we have not yet been able to do, but which I believe sincerely will be done, is to get the kind of competition forward that will ensure that Air Canada has to really be on its toes. I have told the media that it should not keep on talking about cabotage but that it should call up the executives of the charter carriers, WestJet, Mr. Rowe of CanJet and others and ask them if they want cabotage. They will say “No, my God, no. Please give us a chance to compete”.
I believe in Canadian entrepreneurs. I cannot believe some of the drivel that has been written about the need to bring in the Americans to somehow rescue us from the lack of competition. Nothing can be done overnight but, as we can see from the plans of the charters and others like WestJet, there is new equipment coming on and new entrants will be coming into the market. There will be competition and it will be Canadian competition. It will be competition of which we can all be proud.
Madam Speaker, thank you very much for your rapt attention. If you think that I have been somewhat strong-minded in my views today, you are absolutely right. It is at this stage of the debate that I can actually say what has been on my mind for months. This is an accomplishment not only of this government in its air transportation policy but it is an accomplishment of parliament. It shows how members of all parties can work together for the benefit of Canadians and how all of us can have such a dramatic effect on public policy.
I again thank all my colleagues who took part in the debate: my parliamentary secretary; the chairman of the standing committee, the member for Hamilton West; Senator Bacon, the chair of the Senate committee where the bill will now go; the people at the Competition Bureau; the hard-working staff at Transport Canada who have hardly had a day off since last August; and my own personal staff. It was not an easy task. It was often tough but we did the right thing and it will benefit all Canadians.