Mr. Speaker, it is a pleasure for me to rise today to speak to a very important subject which my colleague introduced, dealing with a seamless, integrated transportation system.
Our country is the second largest in the world. A huge country like ours with a small population requires a transportation system that will bring remote communities, small communities and larger centres together.
Forty per cent of our GDP is comprised of exports. We have a huge export market. Therefore our prosperity relies on an excellent transportation system.
Over the years we have had a very good transportation system, but due to the lack of funding and the lack of vision by the government we have seen cuts rapidly developing in our transportation system. With our growing exports and the NAFTA, the need for a faster, reliable transportation system has become very apparent.
I know that in a city such as Calgary the transportation system cannot match the growth that has taken place. There is a crying need for money to be put into the transportation system.
If we look back at the history of Canada, we see that Canada was opened up by the railways. We had a premier transportation system which ran from one end of Canada to the other. Railways played a critical role in bringing Canada together.
The airline industry also played a critical role. Our remote communities in the north were serviced by bush pilots and smaller planes, out of which grew a very viable airline industry. We all remember PWA, Wardair and other airlines which played a vital role in bringing Canada together.
When I say bringing this country together, we must remember that to the south of us is located the largest economy in the world. It is important for Canada to have a transportation system that runs from the east to the west. It is vital to holding the country together and to bringing unity as well.
No one can deny the importance of a seamless, good transportation system. I am speaking of the railways, the airline industry and the shipping industry. All of these have played a major role in Canadian history.
We reached a juncture last year when our airline industry faced a major crisis. One can lay the blame on a lack of vision of the companies involved and the government, as the government tried to control and regulate the industry. Those were the days of regulation. We all remember that Air Canada was a government monopoly and the restrictions which the government placed on Air Canada in its attempts to control the airline industry.
There is still some fallout today if we consider the restrictive ownership of Air Canada. On the other hand, Canadian Airlines was left to the market forces.
As we all know, this culminated in the major air wars that took place last year. The air wars may have taken place in the boardroom, but Canadians became apprehensive because they had come to rely on air transportation as one of the most significant ways of travelling our country. Canadians became apprehensive of what was happening.
There was a serious threat to the competitive environment in the industry and a serious threat of one dominant carrier having a dominant market in the country.
We all know that Air Canada grew from the government, became privatized and had quite a massive infusion of government funds which allowed it to have a better advantage than airlines in the private sector. Nevertheless, Air Canada's past has not been very favourable among its competitors. It has been accused of pirating practices, of trying to run Canadian Airlines out of business and of trying to muscle its way to becoming a dominant force in Canadian air space.
This has caused concern for many who come from western Canada.
Now that Air Canada has taken over Canadian Airlines, the apprehension still exists. We have not seen a plan. We do not know what is Air Canada's vision. Air Canada just walked in, probably smiled and said it had taken over Canadian Airlines. If we ask air travelling consumers, they are already feeling the effects of the merger and the loss of competition. They can already feel it when rescheduling and trying to make accommodations. It is having an impact on western Canada, and that is a cause of concern.
As far as I am concerned, Air Canada has not bothered to ask the travellers what they want. Its officials just went into the boardroom, looked at the bottom line and tried to create a merger within the airlines to remove the overcapacity which we all know existed. It should not have existed in the first place. The situation is creating tension and apprehension.
If this is the way it is going to go, we will have a serious problem. Canadians will demand more competition. We know the government has given Air Canada a two year period in which to integrate and address the needs of Canadians.
The fact remains that there will not be competition. Without competition the Canadian travelling public is going to pay a heavy price. We can already see that. Thousands of consumers have spent millions of dollars on air miles and already that is under a cloud of doubt. Air Canada talks about negotiating this.
We hope that Air Canada will not take advantage of this monopoly situation and use that against the Canadian travelling public. It knows it has a monopoly and it knows that people have no other choice but to use its services. I hope it does not do that. I hope it will be a better corporate citizen and address the needs of Canadians and look at other issues which come with competition.
I stated what I felt about the state of the Canadian airline industry. In the transportation committee the Reform Party proposed solutions in its minority report. I hope the government will look at them and seriously look at the issue of the monopoly situation in our skies today.
