Sorry - but that's pretty narrowminded.The US also puts strings on the money, nobody laid off till October, and all destinations continue to get service. It's neatly set up so that no town loses service entirely, and no airline employee goes without a paycheque before they go into the voting booth in November. But after the election, it'll be a no holds barred list of layoffs and reality starts to sink in.
Using the Air Canada example, why should taxpayers of Canada be forking up some billions of dollars to safeguard the investment of an Air Canada share holder ? Our government has already fired up the printing press to print money for the employees. If the company needs more money to stay afloat, let them fire up their own press, print up share certificates and sell them to investors on the open market. That's what the markets are for, sell the risk to folks who take risks. If the company cant survive, that shouldn't be a problem of the taxpayer, not unless it's a crown corporation where taxpayer is the shareholder.
Me thinks all you airline folks want your cake and eat it too. Listen to yourselves, you want to keep the money and funnel it to shareholders when times are good, but stick the bill on the taxpayer when times are bad.. That's just WRONG.
Everybody needs a bailout. Your assuming everybody is a publicly traded company - which they are not. Maybe those with shares need extra strings or regulations - but they need help none the less. There are hundred's of companies big and small what about them? The government locked down everything - forcing the airlines to sit idle. This was not some random downturn or something of the airlines doing, in which case they should have money to weather the storm, and I would argue most do.
You keep harping that if no-one has money to sit this out for a year - then it's their own fault and they should die....really - give your head a shake. A business in which it's only business is to fly airplanes - they build a plan for that. They don't build a plan for not flying airplanes. Come on.....
While the argument for having enough cash to get you through a few months is a valid one - no-body could plan for being out of business for 6 - 12 months. That is unthinkable - at least before now. During 9/11 the unthinkable happened - but at least it was short term. Even as they started grounding everyone - they knew it would only be a week at most. To be forced into a shutdown for an undetermined amount of time (months or years) with no end in site and be told your on your own. That's just WRONG.