Madam Chairman, I thank the hon. member for allowing me to share his time.
Perhaps there are more airline employees living in Surrey Central, the constituency I represent, than any other constituency in Canada.
After the Competition Act was suspended in 1999, an offer for Canadian Airlines from Onyx Corporation of Montreal was blocked. The result was that Canadian Airlines was swallowed up debt free by Air Canada. Air Canada failed to live up its 180 day guarantee it made in 1999. Instead, it cut routes, shed 9,000 jobs, raised prices and lowered the quality of service in Canada. This resulted in the troubles that accumulated in Air Canada.
The anti-competitive practices that Air Canada has continued have driven other carriers out of the industry, such as Canadian Airlines, Greyhound, Roots Air, CanJet, Vista and Royal. They have all fallen victim to Air Canada's anti-competitive practices.
The first people who should bear the brunt of this mismanagement of the airline should be the shareholders and bondholders. The second group of people should be the credit adjusters who take risks and give credit. Since they expect to share the benefit they should also share the losses if there are any. It should not be the taxpayers who pay the price for the mismanagement of the airline.
Air Canada has the highest capacity among all the airlines and capacity is function of cost, so the cost is high, the debt is high, there are more employees, more inefficiency and more waste. That is the accumulation of the problems which the chief executive officer of Air Canada is trying to camouflage under the September 11 incidents. I believe this problem should be taken care of mathematically, economically and on a cost profit basis.
As far as safety is concerned, the government has not given any concrete proposals. The government has not yet said whether it will allow air marshals on flights in Canada. The security measures that are in place are not adequate. After someone checks in with security at the gate they can buy knives in the terminal from the gift shop. Security is not particularly efficient.
I do not see the light at the end of the tunnel. I see tunnel at the end of the light. I believe the government should take concrete action, come up with a proposal and present some legislation to that effect so that our air industry can be competitive and safer.
The airline industry is not the only industry bearing the brunt of hard times. The softwood lumber industry made 14,000 to 15,000 employees in my province of British Columbia suffer as well. The situation is similar in the agriculture and trucking industries. They are also suffering.
Since I have run out of time, I would ask the government to look at the bigger picture rather than just giving handouts to their Liberal friends.