Madam Speaker, I am pleased to participate in this debate. I begin by thanking my colleague the member for Churchill, the NDP transportation critic, for the incredible work she has done on this issue over the last number of months and years.
The crisis in this country's transportation sector and particularly the airline industry is a very serious one. It is critical in terms of the future of our economy and the very identity of our nation.
My colleague from Churchill has outlined our opposition to Bill C-38. She has indicated to us that this bill represents an inadequate band-aid approach to a very deep rooted, far reaching problem. Concerted action on the part of the government is needed, not tinkering, not playing around at the edges, but actual involvement in this crisis. It needs to initiate a clear strategy for getting our airline industry back on a solid footing.
We often talk about the ties that bind. When we look at the ties that bind, there is no more important institution than Air Canada. Over the years we have turned to Air Canada, our national railway, our post office, our pension system, our health care system, our quality education system. All those are examples of great institutions once all within the public sector that united this country and helped us build on, and not see as a negative, our diversity. Air Canada has been part of that tradition. It has been part of our approach as a nation to the difficulties we face as a people who are spread out in such a wide geographical area, who come from so many different regions with such a wide range of income levels. Air Canada is fundamental to who we are as a nation and where we will go in the future.
Today we are facing a crisis of such proportions that we may see a collapse of Air Canada. In that context, is this bill appropriate and up to the task of preserving a national airline that reaches out to provide transportation to every part of the country, to every region no matter how small, no matter how remote? The answer clearly is no. The bill does not even begin to tackle this very critical issue nor does it address the concerns of Canadians, of workers, of people who depend upon the airline industry for transportation and for their livelihoods.
I do not need to remind anyone what the collapse of Air Canada would mean for our economy. It would be disastrous. My colleague from Churchill has said that over and over again. As a result of the mismanagement by the government supplemented by the tragic events of September 11, the whole airline industry is on the verge of a collapse which would have cataclysmic consequences for our nation. As a result of this crisis, more than 9,000 jobs are at risk. This is causing hardship, distress and anxiety for the proud working men and women who have contributed so much to the industry and who have invested their working lives to ensure that air transport in the country is a viable system for Canadians.
The instability in the airline industry not only affects the thousands of men and women who work for Air Canada, but it also has had a ripple effect on all of our communities. Certainly, small independent travel agencies, particularly in my community of Winnipeg, are suffering greatly because of the instability in the industry and because of the crisis in Air Canada. Let us not forget all of the people involved in the entire transportation system who desperately turn to the government for leadership.
I want to indicate what it would mean for a community like Winnipeg if Air Canada went bankrupt and were allowed to collapse due to negligence and passive reaction by the government.
Winnipeg alone would be looking at the loss of an aircraft maintenance base with more than 800 employees which services contracts from all over the world. It would be looking at the loss of a 400 to 500 person reservations office. It would be looking at the loss of pilot flight operations and in flight operations and the loss of an entire cargo sector. There would be the loss of approximately 150 airport customer sales and service workers as well as the loss of ramp and baggage workers serving over half the Winnipeg airport. There would be the loss of an entire building of finance employees. It would also be looking at the loss of many subsidiary or spinoff services such as Air Canada Vacations. The list goes on and on. It would have a disastrous impact on every community in the country and on our need as a nation to build on the ties that bind and not accentuate our differences because of geography.
As has been said over and over again, the bill is totally inadequate to address the task at hand. What is needed desperately is for the government to say, no matter how hard it is, that it made a mistake years ago when it got into the whole business of privatization and deregulation, off-loading and outsourcing in the interests of trying to balance the budget on the backs of Canadians.
It is not too late to say that the public sector plays an important role. An institution like Air Canada within the purview of the Government of Canada is an absolutely critical part of our society and country. Let us look at finding ways to ensure an equity position in Air Canada and finding enough of a control and hold over the ownership of Air Canada to preserve jobs, to serve communities no matter how far and remote they are, and to address all of the transportation needs of Canadians.
We have heard from others in the House today, especially the Alliance members, how one should simply turn to the marketplace, to foreign investment, to the kinds of scenarios which have been tried but have failed Canadians over the last number of years. It would be worthwhile to look at the fact that changing the ownership rules is clearly not a solution to Air Canada's problem. As has been said over and over again, some foreign investment at best would bring in a short term cash infusion and would keep Air Canada in the air for a few more months. The solution we are proposing is to address the reasons Air Canada is losing money and look at the role that government ought to be playing in terms of a regulatory framework and government involvement.
Too many times we have heard from the Alliance and other members in the House how much of a burden it would be to actually think about re-regulating and deprivatizing an institution like Air Canada. Many in the Alliance Party have a hard time imagining the possibilities under a re-regulated airline system. They have a hard time understanding the benefits to all Canadians of proactive government involvement in an area as vital as transportation.
I hope we can overcome that kind of ideologically blinkered position and actually look at a proactive government role once again in this area. We owe it to Canadians who have invested in the corporation with their working lives. We owe it to every community that needs to be connected to the rest of the country in order to feel some sense of identity and belonging to this great nation. We owe it to the world to show there is another way that public institutions can play an important role in providing services to people and recognize that sometimes services for people are more important than profits for corporations.
I urge members across the way especially to think again about their role with respect to Air Canada and the airline industry. I urge them to come forward with a package of proposals that will ensure that Air Canada survives and that will look at putting our entire airline industry on a stable footing.