Transport committee  The purpose of the changes being made is to take out reference to maintaining maintenance and service in our region, and we take offence to that being removed. If I were to make an amendment, I would remove the reference that takes us out and protect those jobs in our province.

Transport committee  I wish I knew. I think the government needs to be more thoughtful and take its time doing this. Our government representative locally has been very clear—and I stand with her—that we want to protect good jobs in our province, just as others do in theirs. I think Canadians are hi

Transport committee  That is correct. It was before my time, but I do know that labour was a strong voice at that time as well, saying that they weren't living up to the commitment and calling on the federal government to help enforce those commitments. They didn't. They considered it enforcement b

Transport committee  Again, I don't have the details of that. I'm certain there were efforts to do it. Organizations are adaptable and move to fill voids where they exist, but that doesn't take away from the core question. We have an act in place right now that gives an obligation for Air Canada to

Transport committee  Who are we talking about being competitive with? I think WestJet is probably the biggest competitor, and my understanding is that they use StandardAero as one of their maintenance and service providers, and that has operations right here in Winnipeg. I think Canadian jobs and Can

Transport committee  I'd be all for raising the bar. I don't know much detail about the centre of excellence. I've heard mention of it. We've heard little bits and pieces, but the reality is we haven't seen that document. I appreciate the comments by our local minister earlier that it's not something

Transport committee  It's a good question. I don't have that corporate memory and I'm not sure exactly what happened with all of that or how that work's been managed since. I do know there's clearly a gap so that we've been disappointed that expectations have not been lived up to. There may have been

Transport committee  Yes, absolutely. Again, on the centre of excellence, it would be great to have some new workers doing that sort of work, but there is maintenance that needs to be done. I think Canada is extremely competitive in that sector. I think we could do that work all over this country.

Transport committee  Those are both excellent questions that I don't have the answers to, but I can work on seeing if I can find them. Those are the kinds of questions that should absolutely be crystal clear before decisions like this are made.

Transport committee  Again, these are good questions. As you can appreciate, I represent 100,000 unionized workers in our province. When they're no longer working, I don't necessarily have the means to keep in contact with all of them. I don't know the answer to that question. I am curious about it.

Transport committee  I can't make that comparison, but I do know that a number of organizations, such as Neeginan College, have been doing a great job in bringing indigenous people into training in the aerospace industry. I know there is continued growth and interest there. It is a vibrant sector in

Transport committee  I don't know that aircraft maintenance is growing. I think our aerospace sector continues to have some modest growth.

Transport committee  Yes, we're not calling for an expansion. We're saying there is an act in place that covers Air Canada. Those were terms that were put in place when they were established and they came from a crown corporation that got put into the private sector. There are requirements and a deal

Transport committee  Absolutely. Thank you for the question. We do need to enforce the act. On that side note you raised, I think the centre of excellence is a great thing, but it should not replace living up to the obligations we have under the act. Do we need a centre of excellence? We should ha

Transport committee  I'm not aware that any of them have been hired by Air Canada. I'm not sure where they've ended up.