Foreign pilots: what do we do now ?

[Gilles Hudicourt]

We tried taking to the Senate
We wrote to our MPs
We wrote to the Immigration Minister
We wrote to the Labour Minister
We wrote to Transport Minister
We wrote to the Prime Minister
We sent a 2500 signature Petition to the Immigration Minister
We copied the Petition to the House Committee on Immigration
We did a pilot survey that we copied to HRSDC
We collected resumes of qualified applicants that we delivered to HRSDC
We wrote to HRSDC to inform them about the type rating requirements
We wrote to Immigration Canada to inform them about reciprocity and wet-leases
We wrote to Transport Canada to complain about the Foreign Licence Validation Certificates
We contacted the press
I wrote to the Canadian Transportation Agency to tell them that Sunwing had more foreign pilots on staff than they had Canadians and more short term leases from from foreign airlines than they had long term leases.
I wrote to Transport Canada to tell them that in the US, the practice of dry leasing aircraft from an foreign airline and then contracting out the pilots to fly the same aircraft from the same foreign airline was an illegal practice called "sham dry-leases". In Canada, this is normally also impossible, since there are no provisions in the CARs that allow foreign licensed pilots to fly for 705 airlines. CAR 421.07 lists all the purposes for which a FLVC may be issued to foreigned licenced pilots and flying for Canjet and Suwing does not figure on the lits. Our Minister invoked an article which gave him Ministerial powers to provide FLVC in exceptional circumstances and used it to provide foreigners with FLVC to fly for Canadian Airlines thus allowing the practice of sham dry leases in Canada.

All these actions we took had no effect whatsoever.

This year, more foreign pilots worked in Canada than last year. This problem is getting worse year after year.

What do we do about it now ?
Roll over or fight it with other means?

[piloterror]

DELETED

[60N30W]

Buddy not for anything, you and your company are going to have bigger fish to fry come this summer. Not only is Sunwing destroying your southern market but now this Rouge is going to be attacking your European market. Basically Transat is going to be getting DP'd.

Fun times ahead!

Before Rouge can be a threat to TSC on the Atlantic they will have to crew those 767s, heard about a week or so ago that the bid had been cancelled because no one in house bid to go fly the machines for what AC/Rouge is offering to pay.

We are holding our own on Europe, dealt with the competition this past summer and we did ok, looks like one of our competitors won't be back next summer like they were this past one, so think we will be able to deal with Rouge. That is if they really take to the air!

If you are a Sunwing employee I think you should be the one worried about Rouge, they will be destroying your southern market too, and with those 319 in the fleet they will be into all those smaller destinations that TSC does not operate into. Good luck with that.

[Gino Under]

Gilles,
I commend you for your efforts.
I thank you for your passion, sense of fairness and reason and for grinding the axe for so many, including myself.
Unfortunately, this (not surprising) outcome is only proving once again that Canada is ANYTHING but a democracy. That our own government has little or no regard for the laws of the land that are meant to protect.
We are governed by morons and incompetants.

This crap airline industry in Canada is run by opportunists and we are but their cannon fodder. How much clearer can it be?
I anxiously await the demise of both Sunwing and Canjet for the charter airline business in this country is also cyclic and their day will come.

Gino Under

[North Shore]

You alluded to Revenue Canada in one of your earlier posts, and how some of the 'imports' may not be subject to Canadian taxation when they should be; and that if it were 'domestics' crewing those planes, then the taxman might be getting a bigger/better share; why not try an attack via Revenue Canada?

[Gilles Hudicourt]

I did. I just forgot to mention that one in my post.

[Takeoff OK]

How about contacting the lawyer that is in charge of the Chinese miner lawsuit?

[whipline]

The union lost their court challenge.

[ant_321]

Get "market place" to do a story.

[RogerCheckCopy]

Gilles:
I would continue to collect documented data on crew numbers, work permits etc to build and strengthen your statistical data (proof). Only hard facts will count in the end.

I suspect the Government is reluctant to jump the gun for a couple of reasons.

1.They may want to look at a longer period, maybe over 5 years before passing judgement. From what I understand Sunwing has only been bringing in larger numbers of foreign crews (100+) for the last two or three winters. Before that, going back to the first year of operation in 2005 and up until 2010/2011 season there were more Sunwing pilots going to Europe than foreign crews coming here from what I gather. So yes it has been very lobsided the last couple of years, but if I remember correctly the very regulations you have been posting here does open the door to look at a longer term i.e over 5 years. The way I see it if you use that part of the regulation Sunwing has another 2-3 year to balance things out and prove they are not taking advantage of the rules.

2. The Government might be questioning the possibilty of destabilizing a mainly seasonal business that is profitable, generating large tax revenues for the Government and employs 2,000+ people because the business model relies on foreing workers for a few months every year. You have to remember that the Goverment is probably not looking at this as a European pilots taking Canadian pilots jobs, they look at the labour market and economy as a whole and weighing the pros and cons.