Madam Speaker, last month I asked the incoming Minister of Transport why the Canadian aviation sector had already lost significant market share as a result of this government's incompetence and inaction while foreign carriers had received billions of dollars in sector-specific aid, and when the Prime Minister would put Canadian jobs first and deliver a plan for the airline sector.
Well, there has been lots of positive talk from this government. On March 10, 2020, shortly after the pandemic hit, the Minister of Economic Development said:
What we're looking at is how we can mitigate the impacts while making sure that we can have, still, a strong summer season and also that we can really bounce back.
Shortly after that, on March 19, 2020, the former finance minister, Mr. Bill Morneau, said, “Well, we are working hard with the airline sector. We're not taking anything off the table. We're going to see some businesses in extreme pressure and we're going to have to listen to them and we're going to have to work fast.”
It did not end there. On May 4, 2020, the Prime Minister hinted that support was coming for the airline industry, although he did not say how much money would be sent and when. He said, “We need to continue to have a strong airline sector, once this is all done. We are looking very carefully at how to support industries like that, that are so important to Canada and to Canadians.”
Finally, on May 16, 2020, the Prime Minister said that the federal government was committed to help for airlines after Air Canada announced plans to slash its workforce by at least half, but it was unclear what that support might look like.
We know from the timelines the things that happened. On March 21, Porter Airlines suspended its operations. We have yet to see it come back. Who is getting that business? Why, it is going to American airlines. On March 23, 2020, Sunwing Airlines suspended its operations for eight months. For the benefit of whom? It was American and European airlines. On April 18, Air Transat suspended flights for three months, and who was to benefit from that? Once again, it was foreign airlines.
Again, we hoped that the government would take an interest and support the airline sector, and again we were met with just words and not actions. The intergovernmental affairs minister said that:
I know my colleagues, [the transport minister and the finance minister], are looking at a whole series of options of what government support might look like for the sector. So we haven't made any decisions in that level of detail yet, but they're very much discussing that.
On November 3, the member for Central Nova said:
I know the government has been working with the aviation sector to continue to figure out specifically how we can support the long-term survival of air travel in Canada, because the full picture of this pandemic will not reveal itself until long after the public health emergency has ended. We plan to be there to ensure the air sector has the support it needs.
Certainly we have seen support in other nations. In Australia, the airline sector received $1 billion. Brazil gave $660 million U.S. France gave $22.7 billion Canadian. Germany gave six billion euros. In Italy, the European Commission approved 200 million euros for its airline sector. Our friends to the south gave a total of $88 billion. However, there is still nothing from this government. When will this government have a plan for the airline sector?