Manitoba Joins Quebec in Case Against Air Canada
October 4, 2012
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There is a new chapter in the ongoing saga of Aveos. Manitoba has joined Quebec in formerly accusing Air Canada of not respecting the 1988 law requiring it to maintain aircraft maintenance and overhaul centers in Montreal, Winnipeg and Toronto.
“This is a significant turn of events,” said IAM Canadian GVP Dave Ritchie. The IAM represents more than 1,700 workers at the now-defunct overhaul company. “With the added weight of the province of Manitoba, this is far from over,” said Ritchie.
The Department of Justice of Quebec argued that the carrier breached its duty under the 1988 law that allowed the federal government to privatize Air Canada and its maintenance centers across the country.
Manitoba requested to be able to intervene in the superior court, to which Air Canada opposed. In his decision, Justice Martin Castonguay was extremely clear. “Recall that the City of Winnipeg, Manitoba is specifically named in section 6 of the Federal Act. This article is at the heart of the debate,” he wrote in a seven-page ruling. At the same time, he refused the request for Air Canada to return the case to the Federal Court.
“The field of competence of the federal authority in relation to aeronautics aims to regulate and standardize everything key to air transport,” wrote Castonguay, “conflicts with trying to import the concept of air transport in an Act whose purpose is the privatization of Air Canada.”
