Madam Speaker, it is a privilege for me to speak on our transportation industry. This is the second time I will have spoken on this subject.
When my colleague who just spoke was the Alliance critic, I spoke to her about this. She is now the DRC critic and many of the points she mentioned today were what I was going to mention. Nevertheless, I will re-emphasize many of those points.
Before I go to that, I would like to set the record straight. The Bloc and NDP members who spoke alluded to the fact that the Canadian Alliance was opposed to bilingualism. I would like to make the record very clear for them, especially the Bloc member who brought the separatism issue into this.
My colleague, the transport critic, did not say that we opposed bilingualism. He said that only Air Canada was forced to speak in two languages while the other carriers were exempt from that. He said that the rules should be equal for everybody, which would mean that the other carriers should also speak in both languages. He was trying to say that this restriction tied the hands of Air Canada. Let us not twist the facts.
I listened to what the Minister of Transport had to say. I was extremely stunned when he said that parliament put the 15% per cent restriction of ownership on Air Canada . As my colleague from the DRC said, both she and I stood 18 months ago and said free up the ownership rule and let Air Canada fly on its own. At that time, he stood up and said that it was not possible and gave all the usual excuses. Eighteen months later he is proposing a bill removing that ownership.
This indicates that the mess the Canadian airline industry is in is partly the responsibility of inaction and not well thought out plans by the government. We also know that this mess was also created by Air Canada itself. Everybody knows Air Canada's management has been disastrous at times.
Some of the management decisions have made me shake head and wonder if they have been made by supposedly qualified managers. Many times I have asked questions about the operations of Air Canada.
Let me go back to mismanagement by the government. Regulations have tied Air Canada's hands. However the government is untying them slowly. It wants Air Canada to act as a private company. Then it does not want that. Then it wants to put in restrictions. Nobody has the foggiest idea where this is going. Who is aware of what is going on? I am sure even the management of Air Canada is at times wondering what it has to do.
Let us talk about restrictions the government wants to remove. We have the foreign ownership restriction but, as my friend said, that is immaterial.
We want Air Canada to be a viable institution. By removing the 15% restriction, it will be able to trade. It will be a private company.
Government has no ownership. If the government has no ownership, why is it poking its nose in Air Canada? It claims and says that the smaller communities do not have services and that we have to provide them with these services. My colleague from DRC articulated one point very well. WestJest provides services.
One of the reasons WestJet came into existence was simply because Air Canada was charging too much. It was ridiculous. Hence WestJet came out with a sound business plan and look where it is stands today. Even after the disaster of the September 11 attack, WestJet said it did not need much money.
Members of parliament, who have travelled over the last three and a half years or four years, know that Air Canada and Canadian Airlines were trying to kill each other. It was not good for the airline industry. We had planes departing at the same time. What were they trying to do? I do not understand. They were routed to the same place, which was absolute nonsense. These planes were half full.
We now have Air Canada doing the same thing with Tango airline. Their experts say Tango is a great name. I guess we will have to get used to it.
My colleagues just advised me that Air Canada picks them up and pushes them over to Tango. Air Canada is using its bigger monopoly for this discount airline in competition with the other regional airlines.
What is the intent of Air Canada? It has more than 70% of the market. It has all the international routes. If it concentrated on its core business to provide good service, it could do well. However, it is more interested in opening up Tango and trying to run other people out of the business, which has fallen off from since they were dealing with Air Canada. There is absolutely no change in the mentality of the management of Air Canada.
As a matter of fact, when I travel and talk to Air Canada and Canadian Airline employees at the Ottawa airport, the Calgary airport and in some other place, I do not see happy employees. They are, of course, worried about jobs, but in general their morale is down. As a former businessman, I do not know how people can run a company with unhappy employees. It will eventually translate into frustration and bad service. I have had bad service on many occasions. Who has not had this bad service?
We need to make Air Canada what it is supposed to be: a business that is an expert in transportation. That can only be done if we remove the regulations.
The NDP members said they liked competition but they wanted regulation. The Bloc wants to protect the employees. We all want to protect the employees. However, in the long run, if Air Canada's hands were untied and it had the ability to make sound management decisions with happier employees and a happier public, that would benefit Canadians.
Canadians would like to see that maple leaf flying all over the world. It is a great sight to see but not at the expense of Canadians.
After the September 11 attack, a statement made by the CEO of Air Canada stunned everybody. He said he wanted $3 billion to $4 billion of Canadian taxpayer money. This airline has a monopoly. It is an airline that, through its predatory practices, killed Canadian Airlines. It has all the international market, yet it wants money and blames it on September 11.
Everybody knows that previous to that it was having severe financial difficulties. Obviously, if we really looked at it, the restrictions put on Air Canada by the government has had an impact on it. It has not been able to work as an efficient business entity.
People keep saying they want Air Canada. Then they say they will let Air Canada go like they did to CN. Look what happened to CN. There are two railway lines, the CN and CP. That is all right. When CN was let go, CN's performance improved and now we have two viable railways.
What happened was people did not want to let Air Canada go. There was this fear, especially with the Bloc, the NDP and the Liberal government that services would not be delivered to small communities and to others. Canadians are very entrepreneurial. Canadians will seize the opportunity.
I can say that, if the opportunity is there, lots of regional airlines and other airlines will come in. Right now with all the restrictions, Air Canada is in a dominant position and will not let anybody come in. It is running these operations at a loss, but it still wants to maintain its market share.
The pricing structure of Air Canada right now makes me shake my heard. Air Canada charges $3,000 from Calgary to Ottawa. That is pretty expensive. I flew from Vancouver to Shanghai for $4,000. If a person flies last minute economy it is over $2,000. Is it going to let discount air carriers come and let them take the traffic?
It is obviously a stupid business decision as far as I am concerned. No wonder the other airlines woke up. Now Air Canada has Tango, the no frills service. The bottom line is simple, most people travelling on Air Canada are travelling at half the price.
There is a need to allow Air Canada management to be let go. There is a need for an infusion of capital, and it should get it. There is a need for sound management practices by Air Canada