As the hon. member just said, there was a bomb scare today in Calgary. There is a concern in the airline industry.
The transport minister said that he likes to come to question period to make small little announcements in scrums. That is not what the country needs. The country needs a broad, firm public statement and a showing of leadership by the transport minister. Frankly we need to see what happened in the United States on Thursday last week.
U.S. President George W. Bush stood in Chicago with the transportation secretary and the governor of Illinois and announced some bold initiatives. It was not just some fluffy rhetoric or a prepared statement. It was not a bunch of fluff like we just heard.
The president said that the U.S. is going to put 12,000 air marshals on planes. It is going to retrain all airport security staff . It is going to look at whether or not it should re-nationalize airport security. He made some bold initiatives and committed some real capital and some real financial resources to making it a reality.
He stood before the American people on CNN, live on a national, global network and said, “Fly the friendly skies. Our standard of living will not be impacted by these terrorists. There are air marshals on the planes. You are free to fly. There are new security measures on the ground”. He made real substantive announcements. He said, “Get on planes. America is behind you. We will not have our standard of living impacted by these terrorists”. That is the sort of leadership we need to hear in Canada but instead we have gotten fluff and a vague statement.
I want to move specifically to the issue of Air Canada. The debate has been hyped all day. Frankly I do not know that many Canadians were holding their breath for serious answers, but we were looking for them and hoping for them.
September 11 did have a devastating impact on airlines around the world. Canada has been no exception. In other countries leaders have undertaken bold initiatives to reinforce public confidence in the airline industry and to quickly address the public security concerns with regard to flying. They understand only too well that the best way to restore the international health of the airline industry is to put people back in airline seats where they belong.
Airplanes filled with passengers more than any government bailout of cash that may be proposed is the long term solution to airline competition in Canada and around the world. I must say it is more than difficult to fully engage in this debate regarding financial compensation for the airline industry given the absence of some crucial information.
One, the fact is that neither Air Canada nor any other air carrier has publicly stated the compensation amounts they are seeking.
Two, neither Air Canada nor any other air carrier has submitted a written request for tax dollars.
Three, we have not had a full audit and accounting of the rumoured lost revenue to the air carriers as a direct result of the terrorist attacks.
Four, neither the transport minister, the finance minister nor the Prime Minister has publicly and unequivocally ruled out even the most inflated rumoured requests for taxpayer dollars giving the House and the public no clear indication of their direction vis-à-vis a possible bailout for the air industry.
Five, neither the transport minister nor any other cabinet minister has tabled in the House or before any of the standing committees a specific proposal as to how the government should assist the airline industry in this time of difficulty.
Six, the finance minister has not committed to bringing in a budget at any time in the foreseeable future. Therefore, parliamentarians are left without a clear sense of Canada's fiscal capacity to assist any industry let alone the airline industry.
I say that absent this data, absent having these fundamental questions answered, this debate has been rendered largely neutered. Absent this information, this debate is taking place in an information vacuum.
That having been said, as the transport critic for the official opposition, there are some principles I would like to outline that should guide this debate as we move forward.
First, it is a dangerous game to go down the road of subsidizing business without a clear objective and an end to the subsidization in sight. To reinforce this point, I would like to quote Air Canada CEO Robert Milton. When he appeared before the Commons transport committee on Wednesday, October 27, 1999, he said:
For Canada what we really need to do is to draw a line in the sand and say we're going to stop these unnatural market forces taking place. We're going to truly do what the minister said two and a half months ago and let the market forces prevail in order to achieve a really sensible competitive set in the industry where competition can really flourish. That's what I believe will happen if the government gets out of the game and lets the market prevail.
Mr. Milton was right then, but I am afraid that it may now be up to others to address this principle.
As a second principle, it is, I would say, a moral obligation for members of parliament, those of us entrusted with overseeing the spending of billions of taxpayer dollars, to ensure that those dollars are spent efficiently and appropriated to the areas of highest collective priority for Canadians.
In recent days, various Canadian air carriers have made statements regarding the financial impact of September 11 on their businesses. We, as the official opposition, are prepared to consider any proposal that is tabled in the House. With regard to Air Canada specifically, we understand that Air Canada was reported to have requested roughly $1 billion prior to September 11. The debate should be focusing on how to assist Canada's airline industry in dealing with the drastic consequences of the September 11 attack.
In considering this, we are prepared to examine the airlines' reservations for September, October, November and December of this year and compare them to similar numbers in recent years with a view to trying to determine the financial impact on each airline due to the events of September 11. These numbers can be compiled and they will help answer questions surrounding how big an impact the attacks had on the industry and how much money Canadians might be asked to contribute.
That having been said, the situation with Air Canada prior to September 11 must be taken into account. It has lost $168 million in the first quarter of 2001 and $108 million in the second quarter, but was forecasting a pre-tax profit of $28.6 million for its third quarter, which includes July, August and September airline traffic. The net financial reality of these three quarters has been abysmal. Normally if an airline cannot turn a profit over the summer season its long term viability is in doubt.
I understand that my time is running low but I want to make this point from the official opposition very clear. If any compensation from the government is forthcoming, for the official opposition it must follow three guidelines.
Number one, it must maximize taxpayer and consumer benefits. Number two, it must be fair to all carriers and that includes the view from the official opposition that Air Canada should not be subsidized by taxpayers in order to create a low cost regional carrier that can be seen to drive its competitors out of business. Number three, Air Canada should ask for taxpayer bailouts only after it has maximized all other avenues.
Mr. Milton in his speech in Montreal last week said that he has over $1 billion in cash on hand, he has assets that he has not refinanced and he has credit that he has not tapped into. All these other resources need to be tapped into fully before taxpayer dollars are asked for.
Of course, as a fundamental principle of this party, any potential bailout must come to the House for a full vote. There must be no secret deals. This should not be decided by cabinet in the absence of the contributions of the members here, in the absence of the full House. It should come to the House for a full vote, a free vote. That is the only way to do this properly. Until then, Canadians and the official opposition certainly hope to see much more concrete, not rhetorical, leadership from the Minister of Transport and the Prime Minister than we have seen thus far.