Madam Speaker, I will use the example of Mirabel, because I know that the hon. member for Laurentides is, like me, the member for Argenteuil—Papineau—Mirabel, directly affected by the closure, among other measures, of the Château de l'Aéroport, where 160 workers were laid off.
These workers were laid off and they must live with the existing employment insurance legislation. A two-week penalty applies to all of them. I want to make a brief summary of the situation at Mirabel's Château de l'Aéroport.
Let us not forget that the Château de l'Aéroport, that is, the building itself, is owned by the federal government and is located on Tansport Canada land, which means it is federally owned.
This hotel belongs to the federal government, which sublet it to ADM. This means that ADM manages all federal equipment and goods at Mirabel and Dorval airports.
So, ADM manages the hotel according to the conditions of the lease. There is a lease and ADM had a sub-tenant, Mr. Corbeil. Mr. Corbeil took legal action against ADM because the decision to transfer flights from Mirabel to Dorval has meant a loss of traffic and a loss of clientele, which violates the lease that was negotiated with ADM. In the spring of 2002, the court ruled in favour of Mr. Corbeil.
ADM appealed the ruling, but Mr. Corbeil was awarded $17 million. The court ordered ADM to pay Mr. Corbeil. Obviously, the employees figured “As long as the case is under appeal, we are guaranteed a job until it is settled”, particularly since there were still flights in and out of the airport. The transfer still has not finished. It will be completed next year. There are still potential clients. The day the hotel closed, it had 150 guests. That is the harsh reality for the workers.
On June 26 ADM's appeal was heard. Or rather, ADM won the right to appeal. Obviously, the sub-tenant, Mr. Corbeil, asked to close the hotel for the duration of the appeal, because he was losing too much money. The court found in his favour on July 27. The court allowed him to cease operations. He announced to his employees that they would be laid off in one month's time.
These are people who, because of the delay for the appeal hearing and because of the fact that the sub-tenant had been awarded $17 million, figured it would probably take between one and two years, that there would be time to find another sub-tenant, another manager for the business. No one ever thought that ADM, the federal government's tenant, and the owner, the federal government, would allow the establishment to sit empty. That is the current Liberal government.
It does not give two hoots about employees, the men and women who work there. Less than one month later, the workers at the Château de l'Aéroport, some 160 men and women, received their pink slips and had to contend with the current employment insurance rules: the infamous two week waiting period, which is a penalty the Bloc Quebecois has been denouncing for years, since this is a program that belongs to workers.
It has been some years since the federal government stopped contributing to this fund. Only the workers and the employers pay into it and they might be prepared to make changes. Their reaction would be “If we had our own insurance, truly worker-administrated, then for sure we would not have a two week penalty period”. But no, the administrator of the fund is the federal government, which helps itself to the surplus to pay down its debt. That is what it does. That is the harsh reality our workers have to deal with.
The workers at the Château de l'Aéroport, the people of the ridings of Laurentides and of Argenteuil—Papineau—Mirabel and of the neighbouring ridings, all have to cope with these laws. There certainly are women on maternity leave who are having to cope with them, and are not covered by the pilot project the minister has just announced, and has been announcing on and off since the start of this session. The same pilot project has been announced three times. Three different members have asked questions, members with problems in their ridings. They always ask the same minister the same question, and she always gives the same answer, “There is a pilot project in Quebec, and some day it will get to you”. That is the harsh reality.
That is the reaction, as they try to sell the public the message, “See, we are looking after it”, but they are not looking after it. An experiment is under way that will have no results for the people who need help. There will certainly be no results felt by the 160 employees of the Château de l'Aéroport de Mirabel, who were working in a federally owned building.
The federal government has put an independent authority called ADM, which is not accountable to the public, in charge of managing it. These people are not elected. They are not even taking journalists' questions, let alone those from unions or MPs. Basically, they are not answering questions from anyone.
The government is hiding. After receiving the minister's letter, I asked that a mediator be appointed. After one meeting, the workers received their pink slips and, on August 15, immediately after the decision was made, I filed a request with the Minister of Transport, saying “Call in a mediator. This is insane”.
What is even more insane is that, while there are people interested in subletting the hotel, ADM could not care less. They are in court, before the courts, appealing the trial decision. What matters to them is to challenge the $17 million they were ordered to pay by the trial court.
Meanwhile, they could not care less about what happens to the workers. They are not making any public statements or answering any questions from journalists or MPs. That is the reality. That is how this Liberal federal government is managing the facilities that it owns.
I repeat that the Château de l'aéroport, the Mirabel airport hotel off highway 50, belongs to the federal government. It is its building, its hotel complex, which it rented out to ADM, which in turn sublet it to someone by the name of Corbeil. Today, it is vacant, because of a court battle.
What is worse is that 160 men and women have lost their jobs and are subject to the current Employment Insurance Act, to which we are asking amendments be made. The federal government is handing out scraps, like the $1.3 million aid package for the workers. Once again, this is being criticized. Not that my hon. colleague from Laurentides, who is an expert in labour relations, has not been calling for it, but the pilot program that was just announced should be made permanent for all pregnant women across Canada and Quebec. That is what we are asking for.
Why implement a pilot program? To buy a bit more time in order to save a little more money perhaps, so that they can hand out more goodies to their friends. This is the harsh reality with this Liberal government: handouts to friends.