Mr. Speaker, I am very pleased to speak on this very important motion brought forward by the Bloc Quebecois, to the effect that this House reaffirms its desire to maintain the provisions of section 6.1( a ) of the Air Canada Public Participation Act limiting ownership of the capital stock of Air Canada by any person or group to 10% of the voting shares.
As members know and as, in my opinion, the leader of my party explained in great detail earlier, it is up to us, the parliamentarians directly elected by the people, to those who received a mandate from the citizens of Quebec and of Canada, to shed light on this issue.
Therefore, it is up to us to shed light on this issue, as the transport minister himself has deliberately kept us in the dark, especially since August 13, when he announced, with his colleague, the Minister of Industry, by his side, that he was suspending section 47 of the Transportation Act, hence keeping the Competition Bureau out of the picture.
Talk about democracy. I think it has to be pointed out that, with this decision, the federal government put the review and consumer protection roles of the Competition Bureau on hold for 90 days. Instead of that, the situation has become extremely confusing for the ordinary person because of this suspension.
Yesterday, we heard about certain memos in a question addressed to the minister in the House. We heard particularly about a memo from Onex management to the company's directors dated August 11, two days before application of section 47 was suspended. I will not read that memo, but it said basically that the company had to get a clear commitment from the government before going any further with its plans, particularly with regard to various administrative constraints.
A close look at the minister's presentation before the Standing Committee on Transportation, on Tuesday, and a close look at this memo helps us understand. I will say a few words about the minister's presentation, where he talked about encouraging competition. Basically, nobody is against good principles such as encouraging competition, nobody is against sainthood. However, people do not always behave on this earth in a way that will lead them to sainthood.
The government, through the Minister of Transport, tells us it wants to encourage competition as much as possible. “As much as possible” is pretty vague. In the end, the government may say it was not possible to do more than it did and we will just have to be satisfied with that. It also said it will take legislative and regulatory measures to this end. Then it goes on to say “The Competition Bureau will undertake a thorough examination of any proposal in terms of competition”.
Which means what? This suggests—and we will see the relevant legislation and regulations—that the government may be tempted to reduce the Competition Bureau to a mere advisory role, a simple role of offering an opinion, rather like some others, for example the ethics adviser. Everyone is familiar with the ethics adviser. When we did things up, the answer we get is “Oh yes, we have checked it out with the ethics adviser”.
By seeking extraordinary powers, the minister wants to downplay the role of the Competition Bureau, which has already proven itself in connection with certain decisions the government wanted to take. Let us not forget that the Bureau blocked Ultramar's planned acquisition of Petro Canada. It was blocked because we had a competition watchdog that said “The interests of Canadian consumers might be affected”.
This week, a most interesting letter by former minister Marc Lalonde was printed in Le Devoir . I need not tell you, Mr. Speaker, given your years of experience in this House, that Mr. Lalonde does not have the reputation of being a sovereignist, or a supporter of the Bloc Quebecois or the Parti Quebecois. Marc Lalonde is a former Liberal minister. The title he gave to his article in Le Devoir , which has a reputation as a most serious newspaper, was the following “The 10% rule: in the public interest”.
Certainly the Minister of Transport, yesterday, tried to downplay Mr. Lalonde's intervention in the debate by commenting “Yes, but he is the counsel for Air Canada”. Nonetheless, Mr. Lalonde has considerable parliamentary experience and can see very clearly that there are two bids before the Air Canada shareholders, one from Onex and the other from Air Canada.
It is extremely important to clarify at this point that the Air Canada offer complies fully with current legislation and regulations. The Air Canada offer calls for no changes to the level of foreign investment, the 25% rule, or to the 10% limit on individual ownership of Air Canada.
On the other hand, there is the Onex bid, which would require both the 25% and the 10% rules to be raised.
Under Onex's offer, which is now on the table, American Airlines' share of Air Canada would increase from 10% to 14.9%. I would like the members of this House and those listening at home to remember this figure of 14.9%. This is no coincidence, and perhaps the Liberal majority on the Standing Committee on Transport would be seriously tempted to come and call for 15%, since this has been allowed elsewhere, such as in the case of CN.
Another feature of the Onex—American Airlines proposal is that the president of Onex came right out and said that American Airlines would be putting up $750 million to buy Air Canada. The president of Onex would like us to believe that, even though it is offering $750 million, it will not be trying to exercise control and will not have a right of veto.
My question is this: Is American Airlines a philanthropic institution? Is it a charitable institution? Do those listening to us today think that a capitalist, American company is putting $750 million into saving Canadian Airlines for the sheer pleasure of it? Is that likely? I think the answer is obvious.
No one believes the minister. He is the only one who believes what he is saying. The leader of my party quite rightly mentioned Bill S-31. We will be coming back to this bill again during this opposition day.
Since time is moving along quickly, I would like to point out that we see Liberal members from Montreal's West Island, particularly the hon. member for Lac-Saint-Louis and the hon. member for Vaudreuil—Soulanges, who opposed the Onex proposal and supported Air Canada.
I would like to know why they do not come to the Standing Committee on Transport and say so. This committee is sitting right now. Today was our eleventh meeting since early last week. Why do these members not come before the committee? The simple answer is that they have been gagged.
In closing, I would like to move an amendment. I move:
That the motion be amended by adding after the word “reaffirms” the following:
“clearly”
