Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This is a question for the Minister responsible for Transportation, who has not been busy today.

Mr. Speaker, we have all been told that Air Canada and Canadian Airlines International are about to merge. A lot of us know that Canadian Airlines International has always been a western based company. It has its ancestry, back in the old C.P. Airline, she eventually gobbled up Max Ward and several other smaller western airlines. We are also aware that Canadian Airline crews, as many as forty of them, are based in western Canada. Air Canada's crews are all based in eastern Canada.

I would like to ask the Minister responsible for Transportation, whether he has analyzed the impact this merger will have on the northern transportation industry, as it regards air transportation, both for passengers and for freight?