Madam Speaker, it is a publicly traded company so the employees can buy shares in Air Canada any time they want. I think what has to happen is that Air Canada needs to be more inclusive in its decision making process. It should also have closer talks with the unions and the employees as to the reality and in what direction it would like to go. It should have more communication of that kind happening.
I have often wondered why big union funds are not being invested in these kinds of things. Why do the unions always go to the taxpayer when the unions themselves are not prepared to invest the large sums of money they have in their bank accounts to support the companies that they seem to want the Canadian taxpayers to support?
Certainly the issue with Skeena Cellulose, I do not understand why the unions did not invest in Skeena Cellulose in order to keep it operating for the employees for whom they were concerned.
Employees have to be encouraged. I know it has worked well for WestJet. The captains with WestJet help clean up the airplane after the passengers have left because they own part of the company. They know that is the kind of good service that gets customers back into the planes, which means their company, of which they feel a part, does much better.
Certainly there are companies that do it and do it well, and it has had a very positive effect on the companies and on the service they provide. There is nothing stopping the employees of Air Canada now from buying shares and getting involved in the running of their company.