Mr. Speaker, I am very pleased to respond once again to my colleague's questions and concerns regarding the St-Hubert Airport.
As the Minister of Transport, Infrastructure and Communities noted on March 22, he met with the representatives of the city of Longueuil, the Longueuil St-Hubert Airport Development Corporation and Pratt & Whitney, which presented a proposal for a runway enlargement and expansion as well as other improvements to the St-Hubert Airport.
The discussions examined the various programs available from the Canadian government through the Department of Transportation. At that time, it was noted that the proposed changes to the airport did not fall under the criteria set out for the airports capital assistance program, which is in place for all Canadian airports that are under the criteria.
This program assists eligible applicants in financing capital projects related to safety, asset protection and operating cost reduction. It is designed and has specific criteria to ensure safe operations of aircraft, which is so important for Canadians, that are used for regularly scheduled flights. The standard applied across Canada is to provide funding fairly and to rehabilitate only the length of runway necessary to ensure, again, safety. Safety is the utmost concern.
In this context, it is currently not possible for Transport Canada to fund the entire project submitted by Pratt & Whitney and the city of Longueuil under ACAP.
Indeed, regarding the concerns presented by the member about job loss, I draw attention to a letter to the editor from Pratt & Whitney, which was published in the Montreal Gazette last Thursday, in response to some matters that were raised by my colleague, as well as other persons on that side of the House.
Pratt & Whitney explains that as a user of the airport it was approached to support the project and consider if it could find additional investment opportunities. However, it has said, “whether it goes ahead or not, this project will have no adverse impact on Pratt & Whitney's current manpower level”.
Therefore, there is no sense in spreading misinformation and in fact fearmongering because it wants to make very clear that, “Pratt & Whitney is not asking for any government support for the Saint Hubert Airport and does not intend to do so. There will be no layoffs—in fact, we are growing”.
Pratt & Whitney has also stated:
We have created hundreds of jobs over the past few years and will be producing a record number of engines this year. Of our 7,000 employees in Canada, 800 are located at our major service centre in St. Hubert, where operations are also in full swing because of increased customer demand.
I do not think it can be said any more clearly than that.
With regard to funding, considering that this project in particular contributes, as I said to the member last time, to the economic development of the greater Montreal area, the government could assess such a request as part of another program under which it would in fact be eligible after that criteria is set for the new budget.
However, as the member knows, asking the Economic Development Agency of Canada to contribute a full one-third of its budget to this project would most certainly deprive funding to other regions of Quebec and Quebeckers. We have to be fair to all regions of Quebec and equitable across Canada.
The Minister of Transport and the Minister of Labour have both stated, as has been said in the House, that they would be willing to look at a formal application and conduct a serious analysis to see what we could do as a government to further support this company project and the people of Quebec.
Please rest assured that this department will carefully review the eligible components of this project under ACAP and the existing program and refer the other components that the member speaks of to other departments and/or programs under which they may be eligible for funding.