Mr. Chairman, my colleague from Halifax says $7.20 in Halifax. Every couple of years the contract comes up for renewal, but the employer tells them if he cannot keep his costs down he will not get the contract and they will be out of a job. I have seen it happen on numerous occasions where those contracts have changed every two years in some airports. It is crazy. How can we have qualified, experienced people working at an airport doing airport security checks making $6, $7 or $8 an hour and taking the flack they take? It just does not work.
What has happened since September 11 is that the failure in the security system has been highlighted and people are uneasy. I am not saying that that is the reason the attack happened on September 11 because it is not. I do not think that because those few knives went through that the attack happened. However, people are more uneasy now because they are questioning everything that is happening as far as security.
Last week or the week before that, ten pounds of cocaine were found on the inside panel of an Air Canada jet landing in Winnipeg. It had come from Bermuda or the Bahamas through Florida up to Winnipeg. I believe that has happened on eight occasions in the past five years where drugs have been put in panels in different spots in an aircraft. It comes right through all the systems. A fairly easy way to deal with that, at a little more cost, is to have sniffer dogs to check this out.
We all recognize that when drugs are involved, this increase tension and the risk of danger on aircraft because these people can be dangerous to deal with. Workers are enticed in some of those areas to be part of that, thus increasing the risk to travellers.
From a security perspective, a number of things have happened. The minister announced improvements to the cockpit doors. I think everyone thought, thank God at least that has happened. People will at least feel they have a door between them and that hopefully it will be thick enough that it cannot be booted in. Let us face it, if any of the doors on the planes right now were locked, we could boot them through with a little kick of our leg or a push of our hand. So hopefully that will help.
However, we have to wonder that, if the pilot of the plane knows his crew and passengers are at risk, how strong will he feel about not opening that door? No question, September 11 will have changed a lot of people's thoughts, but in time how would that pilot feel about leaving his crew and passengers on their own?
I believe other security issues are being looked at such as cameras or contact devices where there can be notification that something is happening.
These are all excellent security measures, however, there is a lot more that could be done and it needs to be done. If we want to get the confidence of the travelling public back, it is not good enough just to say the skies are safe, get up there and fly. We have not proven to Canadians that the skies are safe, not when reports indicate that 18% of checks show that all these different things go through. These are not little things, not like a little file that is in someone's pocket, but guns and explosives. That is crazy. It should not happen.
Certainly from a security perspective there is a lot that needs to be done. As a caucus we strongly believe that the department and the Government of Canada needs to take over the responsibility of operating the airport security, without question.
It is a sure way. I do not agree with everything the U.S. has suggested, certainly not the air marshals. An air marshal with a gun on a plane is not going to make me feel a whole lot safer about flying. There are some things that can be done to improve the security measures. Having the national security overseeing what is happening and doing part of the baggage checks now is definitely a plus.
From the perspective of the situation of the industry and where it was before, we all recognize Air Canada was in a bit of a pickle before September 11. If anyone goes through their clippings from Transport Canada and from the industry, they will see numerous clippings about the number of job layoffs in the province.
From my perspective that just exemplifies what we as a caucus, as a party, have maintained all along. Merging those two airlines without any kind of regulation was not going to save the airline industry. Something as basic as regulating domestic capacity would have saved both airlines, Air Canada and Canadian Airlines, if we had done it internationally with a strong international market. In other words, if there were so many people flying out of Calgary, then there should be so many carriers there. If they reached a certain number, then another carrier could be allowed there.
We should not allow this cutthroat kind of approach where we have two aircraft right after one another and not expect to have problems in the airline industry.
With Air Canada, Mr. Milton made a lot of promises he did not kept. I listened to that man say to numerous employees and numerous people that this was what they were going to do and that everything would be wonderful. He said that he would save the world, that everyone would have their jobs and that it would be fair for Canadian Airlines and Air Canada employees. It has not been, but in spite of that they tried to work it out. It was not a pleasant situation.
On top of that, even at this crucial time with a destabilized industry, he is still talking about pulling certain jets off from regional areas and starting up a low cost airline. Mr. Milton should give his head a shake. If we will not fly with his company on regular basis, why would we fly with him on a low cost one? Most air passengers will say that they cannot get much more low service than what they have got for the last little while. Jokes about the pretzels are minor. The service was not good just a short while before September 11.
From that perspective, there needs to be some rules put in place. I hope the market can handle this. I hope all these people who believed in a capitalized, private market that would set the tone and pace and provide everything we need feel good about this because it has not and it has jeopardized the whole airline industry in our country. It has not worked.
I encourage, especially at this time, the government if it does not do any other regulation, at least regulate domestic capacity and do not allow the airlines at this time try to cut each other's throats and jeopardize the whole industry. There needs to be a cooling off period. We need to put up the cautionary flag like on the race track. The yellow flag is up for this many laps guys, until the industry gets a chance to stabilize. Let us see how that works. We might find it is the best thing we can do for the airline industry in Canada.
To also assist in the economic downturn, we mentioned a number of things over the last couple of weeks. I will credit the minister because he has been in the House probably every day since this all started. Although we do not always appreciate his answers, to his credit he has been here each and every day, taking the flak and doing it rather graciously.
He knows that I have never been one for favouring the cutting of the airport leases because I always felt that if they wanted this privatized system, they could pay market value.
However with the situation in the airline industry, the government should look at cutting the airport leasing fees or reducing them, whatever needs to be done to give all airports in Canada a fair shake, and as a result make sure they pass that savings on to the airlines. Again, everyone benefits.
The government should be giving greater support to NavCan so it does not have to increase its fees and hopefully be able to low them. Again, this would benefit every airport in Canada. We would not have a situation where only a few benefited.
Members will not often hear us talking about giving corporations tax deferrals, but this probably is one of those times where interest free loans are an appropriate way to go. This is a crucial time. The rules changed on September 11.
From the perspective of the workers, the Minister of Finance will have to give up part of his cash cow, the EI fund of the Minister of Human Resources Development. He will need the assistance of his colleagues in the cabinet. That EI fund is intended for specific things. Numerous members have criticized the use of it over the years. It has been used as part of general revenue. This is a crucial time and that EI fund needs to be there for all those workers who will feel the impact.
The suggestions that have come from a number of the unions such as the IAM, CUPE, CAW--