Bill C-10 goes through final reading, Manitoba secures $20M aerospace investment

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This article was published 22/06/2016 (3454 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

OTTAWA — Manitoba has secured a $20-million investment in aerospace training in Winnipeg in compensation for federal legislation, which means Air Canada will not have to resurrect high-paying, heavy maintenance work in the city.

News of the impending deal was announced on the floor of the Senate by Manitoba Sen. Don Plett as third and final reading of Bill C-10 got underway Wednesday afternoon. The bill amends the Air Canada Public Participation Act to water down requirements on the type and amount of maintenance work the airline has to keep in Winnipeg, Montreal and Mississauga, Ont. Transport Minister Marc Garneau said the airline needs more flexibility to decide its own contracts in a globally competitive industry.

The existing act requires overhaul centres — and the accompanying high paying jobs — in those cities, but the new law lessens that requirement to be just any type of maintenance work. Winnipeg’s current 28 line maintenance jobs will be good enough to fulfill the new requirement and Air Canada can change that number at any time.

Winnipeg had more than 400 heavy maintenance employees until 2012, when Air Canada’s heavy maintenance subsidiary went bankrupt and the airline shipped the work out of the country. Today Air Canada has contracts with companies in Quebec, the United States, Ireland, Israel and Singapore to do its overhaul maintenance.

Last week, in an interview with the Free Press, Plett said he would block passage of C-10 before the summer recess unless the government came up with the $20 million in aerospace training funds for Manitoba, which he said had been promised to the former NDP government before the provincial election. The new Tory government had been unable to get any answers about the money until after Plett’s threat was delivered.

On Monday, Garneau told Plett at a Senate committee he was investing $10 million to expand the Centre for Aerospace Technology and Training at Red River College over the next five years.

Plett asked where the other $10 million was and Garneau did not respond. On Wednesday afternoon, Plett asked Sen. Peter Harder about it during Senate question period. Harder is the government’s representative in the Senate. Harder added $5 million to the pile, saying he had been told by the government it was for aerospace training but that the details were still being worked out with the province.

Then during his speech on third reading of the bill a little later, Plett said he was told in an email from the provincial government that they were “close” to securing the final $5 million.

As such, Plett said he would no longer oppose the bill. Plett said as a Conservative he is in favour of less government regulation and only disliked the bill because he felt the government was hurting his province.

Garneau’s office has provided no further details of exactly how the money will be spent. A provincial spokeswoman said only that negotiations were “continuing.”

Bill C-10 ultimately passed through the Senate Wednesday afternoon and will now become law. Air Canada will move forward with a plan to create maintenance centres of excellence in Winnipeg and Montreal, as well as to buy new planes from Quebec-based Bombardier. An airline executive threatened Monday to back out of those promises unless C-10 passed.

Details of the $20-million investment have yet to be released. Neither Garneau’s office nor the provincial government could provide any more information Wednesday, as final negotiations were still underway.

mia.rabson@freepress.mb.ca