Mr. Speaker, I will be sharing my time with the member for Mégantic—L'Érable.
Mr. Speaker, here we are a year later and I wish I had a different story to tell. I am starting to feel very much like a broken record, but the fact is we are having this opposition motion today because many Canadians feel left behind.
Despite all of the comments and the facts and the quotes given by my colleagues across the aisle in the government, we in the official opposition felt it was absolutely necessary to have this opposition day motion to recognize the hundreds of thousands of Canadians and workers who have been left behind. People who are listening to me know who they are. That is why we are having this opposition motion today.
To use the words of one of my favourite pop songs of 2005, from the artist JoJo, it is, unfortunately, Too Little, Too Late.
I recall, in December, being plucked from the House by my whip because it was announced on Reuters that a plan for the airline sector was coming. I was very nervous about this plan, but very excited. I led question period the next day, but the result was no plan.
Most recently, a couple of weeks ago, we saw in The Globe and Mail excitement that a plan for the airline sector was on the horizon and imminent. The word imminent has been used a lot. In fact, I am on my second transport minister, if I may say so, and still there is no plan. All of this conversation actually began back in November, but still there is no plan.
I could go on and on about the devastation, and I have before. We have seen jobs lost, routes lost, market share lost and leakage. These are a result of the government's inaction.
We have the gross domestic product for the tourism industry down almost 50% to 70% since 2020. Travel restrictions could also lead to significant losses in other industries, with the overall impact resulting in a 1.2% to 1.7% reduction in GDP.
The U.S. government, on the other hand, has provided $7 billion in support already for its industry. As a result, it will have a significant advantage.
In October 2020, the main carriers for the United States, including Delta, United and American Airlines, were operating at approximately 50% of their typical capacity. In comparison, Canadian carriers were operating at 25% of capacity, so there is no comparison.
It is the same in Europe. In October 2019, Canadian carriers operated at approximately 64% of capacity, trans-Atlantic share, while European carriers held 36% only by Canadians. In October 2020, Canadian and European each held 50%, so it has changed significantly.
In addition, we have seen a significant loss of regional routes. In Canada alone, we have lost service to Charlottetown, P.E.I.; Fredericton, New Brunswick; Deer Lake, Newfoundland and Labrador; Sydney, Nova Scotia; Saint John, New Brunswick; Bathurst, New Brunswick; Wabush, Newfoundland; Gaspé, Quebec; Baie-Comeau, Quebec; Mont-Joli, Quebec; Val-d'Or, Quebec; Kingston, Ontario; and North Bay, Ontario. Air Canada is currently losing an average of $15 million per day and it has had to lay off approximately 20,000 employees as a result of COVID-19.
As well, international carriers are able to indirectly access several Canadian markets through nearby U.S. airports. This is known as leakage. We see this at the three Bs, as I refer to Bellingham, Burlington and Buffalo.
We have asked the government on several occasions to take action. We have asked for rapid testing, testing on arrival and testing on departure. The industry took the initiative through many pilot projects. In my hometown of YYC, we saw the Calgary border testing pilot program, where there was a test on arrival, a second test on day six or seven and, if necessary, there was a third test. We saw the possibility to reduce the quarantine time by up to an entire week, and the government did not act upon this.
We also saw the McMaster project out of Toronto Pearson Airport, where there was testing upon arrival, a second test and then a third test, with 0.7% detected upon arrival, 0.3% on day seven and less than 0.1% on day 14.
YVR also had its own pilot project but unfortunately, with the implementation of the three-day hotel quarantine, we saw the dismissal of all of these projects. Looking ahead to what the future looks like for the Canadian aviation sector, it is grim with no routes, expensive fares and stopovers. As I mentioned, many regional routes have had service suspended. It will be several years before we see these routes reinstated.
Airlines are very concerned about the loss of market share if they are unable to connect to smaller regions. I am very concerned about pilots, and the tens of thousands of workers who are leaving Canada to work in other jurisdictions. We need to prevent their jobs from moving to countries with established aviation sectors, and keep them here in Canada where they should be.
I have mentioned before the conversation about sun destinations. Just two weeks ago I was able to go to the Expedia website and book a ticket from Vancouver, with a 31-minute stop in Seattle, that carried on to Puerto Vallarta. American carriers are, in fact, still able to take Canadians to sun destinations when our own airlines have been told that they cannot travel to sun destinations. It is not right and it is not fair. It is failing Canadians and Canadian businesses.
The future looks very grim for aviation, and I worry about the family in Sherbrooke, Quebec, who wants to go to Disney World. They will not be able to as a result of the cost, and because of the demand that supply will not be able to meet. I am very concerned about that as well.
The government has failed from the very beginning of the pandemic. It failed in many regards, including telling Canadians that there was no person-to-person spread of COVID-19, and that border control measures and masks did not work. It sent critical supplies of personal protective equipment to China when we had a shortage here in Canada. It failed to ensure that Canadians had access to rapid-testing at-home options. It shut down the federal pandemic early warning system just months before COVID-19. Those are all major failures.
We have known since November that Canada is well behind other countries when it comes to vaccine procurement. Justin Trudeau said this was because Canada no longer has any—