Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank my colleagues for this great motion, moving forward. I think there are a lot of things we can talk about in considering why this should actually be considered and looked at to move forward.
I want to highlight a few things, and the first thing I want to talk about is the process itself that was used to say no.
We heard about the midnight text. We heard about how things are done behind closed doors. This is coming from a government that said it would not do things that way and that it would hold consultations.
In fact, with the TPP, we are going across the country holding consultation after consultation, because of the importance of that type of agreement. Well, this airport expansion is not just about Toronto.
I had the pleasure of flying into Billy Bishop airport, and what a great name for an airport. When I say the name, it just rolls off my tongue. It is a great little airport.
I joined a flight here in Ottawa to Toronto, and I sat beside a new friend, a Scot from Moncton, who was going to the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada conference in Toronto. He was telling me that he is a prospector who does business in Toronto.
Of course, we all know that Toronto is the mining capital of the world. When one is looking at investing in a mine, one goes to Toronto to get the expertise on how to do that. Our Canadian companies are the best in the world when it comes to not only mining but to corporate social responsibility in the development of mines everywhere across the globe.
It was interesting listening to him. He said he did a lot of prospecting and he goes to Toronto, and what a great way to do it. He flies right into downtown Toronto, and 15 minutes after getting off the plane, he goes through the tunnel, which has just been developed. I have to say it is an improvement over the ferry. However, he goes across by the tunnel, grabs a taxi, and he is at his place of business for work in half an hour. He said it is just so convenient. It allows him to go down in the morning and do his business in Toronto and fly home that afternoon or evening. That is a very strong tool for Toronto to attract business people to its business community.
I just looked at that C Series jet that has come in. First, it is not a jet. It is a turbofan. The engine is different. It is quieter and more efficient. In fact, we are looking at 50% to 75% noise reduction in that engine. That is one thing that I would think anybody in the Spadina riding would look at and think it was great. They would want that plane flying in there because it is quieter. Its fuel reduction is 60%. It is a more fuel-efficient plane to run and operate. That is why I think Porter, Air Canada, and other companies are looking at this plane. I think that is why they have some 230 orders on the order books.
However, we also need Canadian companies to show confidence there. We need to show that Canadian companies like to buy Canadian products. However, when we see a barrier put up like we are seeing put up in Toronto at this airport, so that they cannot take advantage of this new technology, so they cannot have a quieter and more fuel-efficient plane coming onto that runway, it does not make a lot sense. What makes even less sense is the process.
We have a process under way, and it is looking at all the implications of the expansion of that runway. Instead of waiting for that process to finish, they say no. That is what they said: no. There is no consultation with any other communities that may be flying in and out of Toronto. There is no consultation with the airlines and the employees that are using it. There is no consultation with the businesses outside of the Spadina riding. What we have here is a classic NIMBY.
However, this is an asset. When we look at this area, we see this airport that used to handle about 26,000 people and now handles two million people a year. When we look at the area around the airport, we see it is developing like crazy. That airport is not a hindrance. In fact, some people would tell us that they are living in that area because they are close to the airport. That airport is important for them. Why would we not give them the opportunity to fly in the latest and greatest aircraft? If we look at the options we are putting in front of Canadian travellers with this new C Series jet, we see it is actually something that should be strongly considered and should not be discounted in a midnight text.
I have seen the current government do a few things that really make me scratch my head. When we look at processes that are put in place to help decide whether we should go forward, whether it is with a pipeline or runway expansion, we would put together a process that is actually at arm's length from government so that no political decisions can be made based on partisan politics. It would be based on the merit of the project itself.
We have a tripartite agreement here, three parties that actually would look at this project and decide whether it should go forward. They agreed on the study. The study was in process. Then one party said no, based on partisan politics. This is what is really scaring me when I talk about energy pipelines, when we are looking at getting energy to the east coast or to the Petronas project in B.C., which we heard about in question period today.
Having a process that lays out the rules that say, for example, that if companies want to build pipelines, they have these 99 recommendations they have to follow before we agree to it, that makes sense to industry. It is bankrolled. It says, okay, this is what it has to do to meet the requirements to build a pipeline.
However, when we add at the end of the process that not only will the companies have to do these 99 things but the government will make a partisan decision and it will come back into politics and the government will decide on the final yea or nay, how does that work?
What is the decision factor at that point in time? Companies go through it as a business, spend $12 billion, meet all the requirements laid out in front of them, keep meeting more requirements; then they find out that, unless they take a few people in cabinet out for lunch or dinner, they may not get it. That puts our cabinet ministers in a horrible position. It puts companies in a horrible position. It takes the process, which is very simple and straightforward, and pollutes it. That is what the government has been doing. It is really disturbing, because any type of governance would say we would not do this, but the Liberals are ignoring that, and I find that really disturbing.
I talked a little bit about Canadian companies showing faith in Canadian companies, whether it is bringing oil from Alberta into Quebec and eastern Canada or whether it is buying jet planes that will be flown across western Canada. I am actually pretty excited about the C Series jet, because this might be the ticket to actually having a commercial carrier flying out of Prince Albert. Maybe so, maybe not; economics will decide it, as they should.
I look at Saskatoon, Regina, and Winnipeg. The range of this jet will create the opportunity for those flights to actually come into downtown Toronto. That is something we do not have with the existing aircraft of today. If we look at Toronto and the potash sector in Saskatchewan, we see these people are filling up planes every week, going back and forth from Toronto to Saskatoon, and they are based in downtown Toronto. If they can fly in and out of Billy Bishop, that is pretty exciting for them. Just think of the time they would save. Just think of the time they will have with their families because they are not sitting in an airport, a subway, or a taxi.
This is a very important key economic activity, a tool that is important for the entire Canadian economy. We cannot just look at the NIMBY effect and say that is how we will make our decision. We have to look at all the pieces of the puzzle, and then sometimes we have to make a tough choice. We have to recognize the fact that sometimes we will not please everybody. Somebody will be upset. That is the thing about governing. That is the thing about tough choices.
Government members over there are very naive, thinking that just increasing the number of times they talk to people will somehow change their minds. In a lot of cases, their minds are already made up. All they are doing is playing the Liberals for fools, and they are delaying projects in such a way that the people who are backing those projects can no longer financially afford to continue going through the process.
I will wrap up my speech with that point. This is a process that should have been thought through. It should have been recognized as a process that would come to some sort of result and then brought forward. It was cut short. It was cut by partisan politics and it was cut by NIMBY. It does the Canadian economy no good, it does the city of Toronto no good, it does the commuters who fly in and out of Toronto no good, and for what? The Liberals should tell me.
