Madam Speaker, on November 17, 2004, a few months ago, I put a question to the Minister of Industry, encouraging him to move forward with his aerospace strategy. At that time, his answer was:
—we are moving ahead on a strategy and we will announce the strategy once we have completed discussions and negotiations... We are moving forward with an aerospace strategy, and we will do it in a timely manner.
We are still waiting for a strategy to be announced. All we have heard since was that, at least, an offer had been made by the government to find a solution to help Bombardier so that it could build its new aircraft. At least, in that respect, the Minister of Industry took action following the questions we had put.
However, this happened also after the Minister of Transport, who is the minister responsible for Quebec, made some sort of false statement in January, when he said that an offer had been made on January 13, even though that was not the case.
What is important now is ensuring that the government will reach an agreement with Bombardier. The project must go forward, while respecting the current distribution of jobs in Canada, with approximately 55% in Quebec. We must ensure that we do not lose this project to New Mexico, for example, because the federal government acted too slowly. I hope that the necessary efforts will be made, today, to make up for lost time and ultimately produce results.
This afternoon, I asked a question confirming that, last fall, Bombardier had been offered a $1.5 billion loan guarantee so it could build jets for Air Canada. Four months later, the letter of credit agreement is unconfirmed, uncertified and not applicable. Bombardier itself has to assume the cost of additional credit because of this. So this is a bad example of the reality in which we are living.
Can the government spokesperson reassure me that we are going to reach a solution quickly and that the thousands of jobs at stake are going to be saved? We have developed an aerospace industry, especially in Quebec, but elsewhere in Canada as well, which deserves our support, and which deserves assistance for research and development. We also need an approach that complements the efforts of the Quebec government and others.
Now that the employees in the Toronto area have said they do not want to renegotiate their contract with Bombardier, is that not a compelling reason for us to have an announcement as soon as possible? Such an announcement is necessary so that Bombardier's board can decide to construct its new aircraft and so that we can benefit from the economic spinoffs, which would be good to have.