Mr. Speaker, to respond to the member's first point about the cabotage or the genetically modified cabotage proposed by Air Canada, I believe we should look at all those options. There were other options. I read more options in the paper today by another transportation writer who talked about possibly allowing someone to come into a new market that has been developed by a new competitor, not allowing Air Canada to jimmy the prices on a weekly basis, and to set a price and guarantee the price for a certain amount of time.
A number of things can be done in the transportation marketplace; reciprocal cabotage is one of them. If the Americans are interested we should at least talk about that. If it is a modified version where people are zigzagging and stopping in Chicago on their way to Halifax or something, we could talk about that too.
The essence is that we have to find ways to increase competition. If that will do it, then by all means let us explore it. The important thing is let us initiate conversations with their American counterparts. Everyone has the same shrinking market problem. Perhaps consumers and companies on both sides of the border can benefit from the flexibility that this sort of reciprocal cabotage arrangement might bring to the marketplace.
It seems that the incredible shrinking market has affected everyone, probably with the exception of WestJet in Canada and Southwest Air in the United States. They seem to have got around it by being very specific in their marketplace.
I do not know what we can do about that. We could encourage more travel, and we have done that. We have spent money on ads trying to promote the industry, but there is an oversupply and that in the long run means there will be some companies that will go broke. I do not mind them going broke, if they go broke for legitimate, competitive reasons. What we do not want is having them go broke because they have found themselves in a market where they are not allowed to try new things and to explore those options.
One problem in Canada is that Air Canada in part is a creation of the federal government. We have come to this because of longstanding government policy of years ago that helped to create this monopoly. A number of assets were given to Air Canada through a crown corporation. A bunch of debt was forgiven. When Air Canada went through the merger proposal a couple of years ago, the government got involved in which ones were acceptable and which ones were not. For example, it would not take the Onex deal.
The government has forced Air Canada to do certain things and because of that, although it is hard for me to drum up any sympathy for Air Canada, it finds itself in a box not entirely of its own creation. Therefore, when it puts up a red flag says that it does not like the industry specific, Air Canada specific amendments to the bill, it will have to live with it because I will support the bill as is.
Where Air Canada does deserve some sympathy is that it has arrived at this place not entirely of its own doing. It has been boxed in, pushed in certain ways and regulations have made things a certain way. It is trying to live with whatever reality is now. The reality is we have a dominant airline that has 80% or 90% of the market share. With this bill, we are trying to find some way to protect what few airlines still exist in the industry to ensure they are competitive down the road.