Mr. Speaker, I already answered the question asked by the hon. member for Beauce, who takes a keen interest in this issue.
As I said, no changes will be made to the VIA Rail schedule.
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Rail Transportation December 14th, 1999
Mr. Speaker, I already answered the question asked by the hon. member for Beauce, who takes a keen interest in this issue.
As I said, no changes will be made to the VIA Rail schedule.
Rail Transportation December 14th, 1999
Mr. Speaker, I thank the hon. member for his question. I am pleased to announce that there will be no changes to VIA Rail's schedule, as was rumoured, except for the new service between Montreal and Toronto.
Transport December 10th, 1999
Mr. Speaker, with great respect this is really an order paper question. I will certainly get the detailed answer to the hon. member at the earliest convenience to him.
Airports December 10th, 1999
Mr. Speaker, the hon. member will recall that this matter came to the fore in the aftermath of the very tragic accident in Fredericton when we started to assess all of the emergency response measures across the country including firefighting regulations.
It is true that we have to strike a balance between providing adequate protection and the ability of the local airports, especially in small towns, to pay for that. As a result there have been consultations within the industry, with the airport community and with firefighters to ensure that we come up with a regulation that does not hamstring those communities and does not mean that they do not have the ability to pay for these very valuable services.
Airline Industry December 10th, 1999
Mr. Speaker, I thank the hon. member; especially the hon. member for Hamilton West, the chairman of the Commons committee; and all those who took part in this debate. They did an outstanding job and they have produced a report that will have a definite effect on government policy.
I have said many times before that we believe in competition. We want to make sure the rights of consumers and prices are dealt with and that we guarantee to the travelling public in Canada that this new carrier will work to our benefit.
Air Transportation Industry December 2nd, 1999
Mr. Speaker, what I find amusing in all of this, is that the Bloc Quebecois has been systematically against any form of assistance to Canadian Airlines right from the start, but now this same party is demanding that the government step in to deal with the InterCanadian situation. This is a ridiculous state of affairs.
Air Transportation Industry December 2nd, 1999
Mr. Speaker, I believe the hon. member is in error in his question when he refers to the profitability of InterCanadian.
The Government of Canada is, however, keeping close tabs on the InterCanadian situation, and we are aware that the company is trying to make arrangements with its creditors, which might enable it to resume operations next week.
Air Transportation Industry December 1st, 1999
Mr. Speaker, the Hamilton service is part of the Air Canada proposal, which is being examined by the Standing Committee on Transport at this time. The hon. member sits on that committee.
However, I must emphasize the fact that there is excess capacity on the regional routes, in Quebec particularly. I am told, for instance, that there are 400 available seats on the Sept-Îles—Montreal route weekly, but only 80 passengers.
Air Transportation Industry December 1st, 1999
Mr. Speaker, it is absolutely simplistic for the company to attempt to put the responsibility on the federal government for the financial difficulties of InterCanadian, or to attribute it to the battle between Air Canada and Canadian Airlines, without assuming any responsibility itself. InterCanadian bought Air Atlantic, and this was a very troubled company.
As I have already said, InterCanadian's problems were very evident a year ago.
Airline Industry November 30th, 1999
Mr. Speaker, the financial problems of InterCanadian were well known long before we started the restructuring in August of this year, but it was in response to the airline industry, in particular Canadian Airlines, that we started the restructuring process. It is now working its way through the system. There are discussions among various parties and companies and I hope there will be a resolution to it.
In the meantime, I am very sorry for those people who have lost their jobs at InterCanadian, but there is more than enough capacity in the province of Quebec and the Atlantic provinces to take care of all of the passengers and to make sure disruptions are kept to a minimum.