Transport committee  I would like to clarify one thing, Mr. Brosseau. You are talking about aerospace trades, but there is a difference between a certified technician who gets a licence from Transport Canada to fly an airplane—

Transport committee  —and someone who builds an airplane at Bombardier, for example. With regard to the centralization of these qualified technicians, the 2,400 technicians that are leaving today represent the disappearance of perhaps 75% of all these occupations.

Transport committee  In my opinion, the work has disappeared. I have planes that have gone to Rome, to New York, to TIMCO Aviation Services. I have others that are in Singapore and El Salvador.

Transport committee  They are American facilities. I saw the same meeting of the Standing Committee on Transport.

Transport committee  I think that, with your help, there would be a way to talk to the people at Air Canada and to let them know that the companies have the tools and facilities. They may need a partner to survive. Everyone is talking about Lufthansa but it could be another company. Air Canada could

Transport committee  Let us consider the maintenance, repair and overhaul centres in the world. Lufthansa Technik is a German company that is a subsidiary of Lufthansa. Right now, Air France does all its own maintenance. Air Canada's Boeing 777 engines are sent to Air France, where the three services

Transport committee  That is why I am telling you today that the spirit of the act must be respected. If a supplier wants to come in and buy the facilities, Air Canada must provide a guarantee that it will give its contracts to that supplier. Right now, in the spirit of the act, the government must

Transport committee  We do not have to look as far back as 1988. We can simply look at the situation that existed shortly before the sale. If you were to come and visit the hangars now, you would see that this is an excellent maintenance centre. The pilots say that it is the best in the world. Air Ca

Transport committee  It is sometimes said that the situation was planned in advance. In the beginning, Aveos was in all of Air Canada's facilities, but then Air Canada started renting its facilities to Aveos by square foot, and I can tell you that it charged an exorbitant price. Aveos therefore had n

Transport committee  We want help. That is what we want.

Transport committee  In my opinion, the act is clear. The spirit of the act is clear. Benoît Bouchard feels the same way as we do. He was the transport minister. The experts who came in 1988 said that, if someone wanted to sell these overhaul centres, then the act would have to be amended. The act ha

Transport committee  Right now, we are really waiting for a saviour. There is no other word for it. We are waiting for someone who is really involved, who wants to get the maintenance, repair and overhaul sector going again with the best technicians in the world. We are not the only ones who are sayi

Transport committee  When I met with the minister, he first told me that he was looking into the situation. He must have told me that 20 times. He also told me that his door was still open.

Transport committee  Yes. He told me to leave my door open, so the door is open. I hope that your door is open to bring these workers back to work in the hangars, whether it be with the help of Lufthansa Technik, MTU or any of the other companies whose names have been thrown around but who, to date,

Transport committee  This figure has been thrown around but is there any evidence that 90% of the maintenance contracts were coming from Air Canada? That may have been the case for the aircraft in the hangars, but we were doing maintenance on other aircraft. National Defence—