International Trade committee  We have 112 partners. An air agreement is a treaty, so we're talking about a treaty in almost all of the 112 cases. Sometimes we have more of an administrative arrangement. It could be an MOU, for instance. The number 112 refers to the number of partnerships we have around the

International Trade committee  Okay. In almost all cases we have agreements where there is unused capacity. As we explained before, it may not be an open skies agreement, but the rights are there. They're not being used.

International Trade committee  For very large negotiations like the Canada-U.S. open skies negotiations or the negotiations for the comprehensive agreement with the European Union, for instance, we had in the delegation representatives of the labour movement.

International Trade committee  Yes. When we negotiate agreements, we have clauses that ensure all carriers are not discriminated against. If an airport somewhere starts to give a rebate to a carrier, we want our carriers to get the same rebate. But typically we ensure there is no discrimination for Canadian ca

International Trade committee  As I said before, the interest of Canadian carriers is a consideration that we have to take into account. After all, they are the entities that offer the services. But it's not the only factor we take into account. We also take into account the interest of Canadian airports. In m

International Trade committee  It's amazing. Even when you negotiate with a small country, you think it is going to be pretty smooth, and there's always something that comes up. Every country is very proud and usually wants to put its stamp on the agreement. The number of issues we have to deal with can vary q

International Trade committee  The trend is clearly upward over time. Yes, as Mr. Christie said, sometimes a carrier will cancel a service for commercial reasons. But overall we're seeing a clear upward trend in terms of traffic being carried by carriers under the suite of agreements that we have.

International Trade committee  As I mentioned earlier, we now have 112 partners around the world. There are very few instances where we have confidential annexes to the agreements. We don't promote such an approach; however, quite often when we negotiate with another country, the other country will request tha

International Trade committee  The internal analysis done by Transport Canada showed that the policy remains relevant and its implementation has been efficient and effective. For instance, it is calculated that negotiating with another country costs the government around $35,000 on average. That includes the p

International Trade committee  We do have an ATA with Russia; however, no Canadian carrier is flying their own services direct to Russia at this point. Until recently there were only two Russian carriers flying on a scheduled basis to Canada. One of them pulled out of the market last fall, and the other flies

International Trade committee  You're referring to the foreign ownership limit for Canadian carriers?

International Trade committee  None of the major carriers has been purchased by foreign carriers or foreign companies or foreign investors. However, there are hundreds and hundreds of smaller operators, and I wouldn't know whether some have received additional investments from foreign entities. Certainly for t

International Trade committee  At this point, the limit is still 25% because even though the act was amended, regulations have to be put in place, and those regulations have not yet been put in place. So we're still at a 25% ownership limit, however, many of our large carriers have adopted what is known as a v

International Trade committee  I don't have an answer to that question.

International Trade committee  Sure. Those considerations are paramount. If we take safety, for instance, every foreign carrier has to be certified by Transport Canada. We make sure in that process that they meet our safety requirements in order to be allowed to fly in Canadian airspace. If a foreign carrier w