Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to speak today. Since my election to the House of Commons, I have been a member of the Standing Committee on Transport, so I am particularly concerned about this bill.
We are, as you know, at the second reading stage of this bill, which amends the Air Canada Public Participation Act.
The Bloc Québécois feels that, regardless of its legal structure, Air Canada must be subject to three conditions: a maintenance centre must continue to be located in Montreal; it must continue to have its head office in Montreal; the Official Languages Act must continue to apply to its airline activities. Since this bill sets out some of these obligations, the Bloc Québécois is in favour of it in principle. We do, however, regret certain shortcomings, which may be remedied during the committee study.
I will not go into all the details on the bill, as my colleagues have already done so. I would just like to give a brief historical overview of Air Canada as a company.
An article in La Presse in late November 2004 reported on the sad state of our national air carrier. It reminded readers of the Air Canada ad campaign that ran during the Athens Olympics last year. Hon. members will recall the bicycle racer with a squeaky wheel, who is helped out by a Greek grandmother with some olive oil—a rather unfortunate image for an airline on the verge of bankruptcy. The message sent by the ad was, overall, a somewhat honest one. It was as if Air Canada were saying “We can bounce back. With a bit of imagination, we can accomplish great things”. That was the gist of it, and it was a pretty good reflection of the reality of our national carrier as reported by La Presse .
Air Canada was waiting for a miracle. However, we must remember that this miracle came at the expense of numerous jobs sacrificed in the recovery plan. Today, if you lose one of your bags or a package on an Air Canada flight, do not be surprised if the representative you speak to is working in an office in India. Since late 2004, WNS Global Services, of Bombay, has taken over from the 52 agents responsible for finding lost bags and packages. This company is replacing employees who, until then, worked in the Air Canada offices on Maisonneuve boulevard in Montreal. As I said earlier, the miracle came at a price, and the workers in Montreal were the ones who had to pay it. The workers affected by international subcontracting—offshoring, as we call it—will be able to continue to work for the Montreal carrier. Air Canada has offered them jobs at the Dorval airport or with its cargo service. Here again, Air Canada has opened the door to a transfer of jobs outside Montreal or even Canada.
On the other hand, early this spring, Air Canada announced some good news. Since May, Air Canada Technical Services has been responsible for maintaining Delta Air Lines' 200 Boeing 757s and 767s. This five-year $300 million U.S. contract will create approximately 300 jobs in Vancouver. It was the second largest contract in three months for this now autonomous entity following Air Canada's restructuring.
On December 13, Air Canada Technical Services announced its largest maintenance contract since the airline emerged from bankruptcy protection. This is a non-exclusive five-year agreement with International Lease Finance Corporation. Under the service contract, the financial details of which have not been disclosed, ACTS is responsible for maintaining the components, reactors and landing gear on the fleet of Boeing 737s and 767s and Airbus A320s, A330s and A340s belonging to the largest aircraft rental company in the world. ILFC has a fleet of nearly 700 aircraft.
Yesterday, the media reported that Air Canada is likely the most profitable airline in North America. Earnings by ACE Aviation, the holding company for Air Canada, Air Jazz and Aeroplan, reached $270 million from June to September inclusively. This represents a turnaround over the $81 million loss during the same quarter the previous year.
In comparison, the other major airlines on this continent have quarterly deficits varying between tens of millions of U.S. dollars and a billion dollars in the case of United Airlines.
The Bloc Québécois is very happy with how well Air Canada is doing. There are several reasons why we are eager for it to survive and be successful.
In 1988-89, the federal government deregulated the air industry and Air Canada was privatized through the Air Canada Public Participation Act and the sale of the Canadian government's shares in Air Canada.
At the time of its privatization, Air Canada had a number of obligations required of it under the act in view of the importance of maintaining the official languages rights of Canadians and Air Canada employees and also in view of its previous status as a crown corporation. Provisions were included to ensure that Air Canada continued to comply with the linguistic requirements in the Official Languages Act and continued to have its headquarters in Montreal.
There was an article in Le Soleil last November 26 stating that in view of the steady stream of complaints about its compliance with the Official Languages Act, Air Canada was asking the federal government for financial assistance to help it meet its bilingual obligations. Ottawa's response was not long in coming. The main airline in the country would have to get by on its own.
Mr. Duncan Dee, the company's vice-president of corporate affairs, appeared before the Standing Committee on Official Languages of the House of Commons in the fall of 2004. He said: “It is difficult to accept that we are considered a federal institution for the purposes of enforcement and regulation but not for the purposes of access to financial resources to get the job done”.
We know that discussions are underway with the U.S. government with a view toward further liberalization of the skies. For example, American airlines would be allowed to fly between their country, Quebec and Canada, and another country. Air Canada's traditional role of providing Canadians with flights in both official languages would be diluted even more than it is today.
The witnesses heard during the hearings on open skies said, with various degrees of conviction, that all airlines should have the same obligations to provide service in both languages.
In regard to the Air Canada arrangements, the holding company, ACE Aviation Inc., is required to keep its headquarters in the Montreal metropolitan area as well as its maintenance centres in Montreal, Winnipeg and Mississauga. We feel that this legislative protection is not very strong. There does not seem to be anything that would prevent Air Canada from eventually changing its statutes to get out of its official languages obligations and obligation to keep its headquarters in Montreal. Eventual legal conflicts could be avoided if this were specified in the bill.
Furthermore, since the advent of Air Canada Technical Services as a limited partnership, the requirement that Air Canada keep a maintenance centre in Montreal rings hollow because Air Canada Technical Services is under no such obligation. Ultimately, all the provisions on keeping headquarters in Montreal can easily be circumvented.
It would be advisable to find ways of strengthening these provisions to ensure that they are effective.
We support this bill but obviously we would like to be sure that it really means something.