Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to rise immediately after my colleague from the riding of Louis-Hébert, in Quebec, to speak to Bill C-20, which the Bloc Quebecois has introduced motions to amend. This bill is of particular concern to my riding, the riding of Abitibi, which is definitely a remote area relying heavily on air services. I think that these motions should be given serious consideration.
One of the motions is to add to the preamble that Nav Canada recognizes that Canada is a country where air service to northern and remote regions is essential. We are seeking, in this way, to lay down a parameter that would help prevent areas such as ours from being frequently left out of the equation.
In my area, Val-d'Or, an airport is affected by this bill. Right now, the city, or the chamber of commerce, whichever is working on the question, is required to know whether Val-d'Or will keep its airport when the Department of Transport cuts off its dwindling grants. Will the city of Val-d'Or have the money to run this airport?
For five years now, the policy of the Department of Transport has been to reduce the size of airports. It is obvious that, in the past, airports had practically the same services. The regions did not always ask to have all the fancy services available at Dorval, Toronto, or even Vancouver. It is not necessary to have moving walkways, the sophisticated checking systems of major airports, but areas such as ours must receive essential and equitable service.
Why do people in regions like ours, as my colleague has said in the speech prior to the last one, pay two or three times more per kilometre to fly than people who go from Montreal to Toronto, for example, which is almost the same distance? Why can they get seat sales at $149, while we have to pay $550 for a regular fare between Val-d'Or and Montreal?
What about the air fare between Val-d'Or and Quebec City? It is $650, which makes it expensive for people from Abitibi to get to Montreal or Quebec City-usually not for pleasure, but for business. Pleasure trips are also possible, as they are for people who fly from Montreal to Miami, but people with average incomes find it almost impossible to fly from Val-d'Or to Montreal or Quebec City.
This has, I feel, become impossibly expensive. Some months ago, when I spoke on decentralization and deregulation of transportation services, I called for recognition of equal rights for the people in the regions, whether my region or some other region in Canada, to receive quality service. Not necessarily the plush service there might be in Toronto or Montreal, but service which would allow people to get quickly from place to place as needed. Often trips of more than 700 kilometres are required, to get to
Toronto, Montreal, Quebec City or beyond. These services are necessary, I believe, for sometimes trips have to be made on an emergency basis because of illness or death or the like, and sometimes there is no choice between driving and flying.
But now Val-d'Or is faced with a choice: Will we continue to maintain our airport? Will we have the $500,000 or $600,000 needed to put into it yearly? Will the taxpayers have to foot the bill? I do not feel it should be necessary to ask such questions.
People in regions like Val-d'Or ought to have access to an real operating airport, so that, for instance, if there is a health emergency, a government plane can land quickly and rush the patient to hospital in Montreal or Quebec City.
The Val-d'Or region also serves a vast area of nearly 1,500 kilometres north of Val-d'Or: the Inuit and Cree territories of the Far North. It is from Val-d'Or that the goods intended for these people are shipped.
All the goods sent to the Inuit and the Cree go through Val-d'Or. Shipping may cost less than a third of what it would if the goods were sent from Montreal. It is easy to understand, as an air mile costs much more than a road mile. But, if the Val-d'Or airport closes, shipping costs for the Inuit and the Cree may increase even further, while the people of Val-d'Or would come out even.
I used Val-d'Or as an example, but I am sure there are other airports in the northern regions of Saskatchewan and Manitoba that serve Native communities living further north who also need services at fair and realistic prices.
A few years ago, during the air service decentralization process, the air traffic controllers in Val-d'Or lost their jobs. They had uncovered documents proving that keeping them in Val-d'Or did not cost more than sending them to Toronto or Montreal, where air traffic is monitored. They could also control air traffic over a rather large territory, and there was less of a safety risk.
One of the things the Bloc Quebecois wants to find out about Nav Canada is if the safety level of the people in those areas is not as high as that of the people in Montreal or Toronto. Why are they seen as being candidates for reduced service? Because they live in outlying areas? I think that most of the people in the Abitibi-Témiscamingue region work in the natural resources sector, that is to say, in the forestry and mining industries. These people generate a lot of money for those who live further south.
As my colleague was saying, when I hop on a plane in Val-d'Or or Rouyn-Noranda to fly to Montreal, Quebec City or Toronto, I pay money to those national airports. If we could get only half the taxes collected on the cost of plane tickets, we could finance our own airports and control our own destiny.
We also wanted Bill C-20 to say that Nav Canada should let small carriers have a say, as they would like to. That is the wish representatives of the Association québécoise des transporteurs aériens, or AQTA, have expressed to the Air Transport Association of Canada, and people listened to what they had to say. With the support of the Canadian council of air carrier associations, the Association québécoise des transporteurs aériens made representations to be fully represented on the board.
How can your interests be defended when you are not even represented on the board? If Quebec's small carriers serving our regions have no control or say, how will we go about ensuring any degree of protection? Quebec users have received only a negative answer.
When the airport decentralization and air transport system devolution policy was introduced in the latter part of 1993 and early 1994, we were promised that the system would be more cost-effective and deliver the same level of service at a lower cost.
The letter from the Association des transporteurs aériens du Québec makes us wonder what services are to be expected. What can we do, if we are not even given the right to know what goes on at the board?
I take a strong interest in this matter, because in deciding the future of their airport, as I indicated earlier, the people of Val-d'Or cannot help but wonder also about future changes Nav Canada could impose on a local civilian authority like the City of Val-d'Or, when people will not have any control over future changes.
At the airport in Val-d'Or, for example, there is an aircraft approach system. This system will be under the control of Nav Canada. What would prevent Nav Canada from sending the City of Val-d'Or a bill for the maintenance of the system three, four or five years from now? This is one of many possibilities that have been raised. Last week, I attended a meeting of the chamber of commerce on the Val-d'Or airport acquisition project. People were wondering how they could be sure that costs would remain constant, if there is no control over any of these elements.
Again, if we include in the bill a motion to ensure the safety of air services in northern regions, it will always be possible to tell the government in the future: "Listen, the municipality cannot absorb the annual costs of $200,000 or $100,000. It should be up to Nav Canada to ensure our safety. Aircraft cannot land without an approach system". Then, we, who live in regions, will be protected.
In conclusion, I am asking the government to be receptive to the needs of regions. For too many years now, the government has been making decisions under cover of cuts required by its debt. Regions can absorb part of the deficit. However, the government must realize that if it does not stop depriving us of essential services, people will get discouraged. Sometimes, we cannot help but wonder if the government is trying to shut down regions.
In my estimation, this would be a serious mistake, given what northern regions such as ours provide to other regions, given our great natural resources, which are not even developed here, but taken to southern destinations to increase their worth. Indeed, it would be a serious mistake to conclude, here in Canada, that northern regions generate costs and not profits.
The government should support this motion, so that all regions will feel, even though they do not get additional funding, even though they have to learn to live within their means, that they have some security, that they are respected, and that no forgotten bills will show up in the future.
