Letter to Erica Usher of CIC

[Gilles Hudicourt]

Mrs Erica Usher
Director, Temporary Resident Program Delivery Division
Citizenship and Immigration Canada
365 Laurier Avenue West
Ottawa, Ontario K1A 1L1
Canada

Dear Mrs Usher,

I was astonished when once again this year, I saw Sunwing import a large number of foreign pilots as Temporary Foreign workers. Many have already arrived and many more are due to arrive shortly. Until today, I wasn't sure if they had been issued work permits through LMOs issued by HRSDC or by CIC through "reciprocity" agreements. Today I found out that it is not through LMOs.

This time I will not waste a bunch of your time writing about rules and regulations that are not respected by Sunwing and that your office, against all logic seems to overlook year after year. I will just attract your attention to a few facts.

In the summer of 2011, Sunwing sent 3 aircraft on wet-lease contracts to Europe for a period of approximately six month. They also sent an additional 12 pilots who went to work for several European airlines for about six months. In 2012, Sunwing sent 4 aircraft on wet-lease contracts to Europe but sent no additional pilots to go fly for for European airlines.

So in the past 24 months, Sunwing sent a grand total of 7 aircraft to Europe, plus 12 additional pilots.

It requires about 12 to 14 pilots per aircraft to keep one aircraft flying, so its easy to make a correlation between the number of pilots and the number of aircraft.

Now for the aircraft and pilots they imported into Canada:

In the summer of 2011, Sunwing wet-leased 2 B-767s from Portugal's EuroAtlantic Airlines:
Then during the 2011-2012 winter they dry-leased 15 B-737s from several European Airlines, Travel Service, Thomson, TUIfly, and JetAirfly.
Then in on Feb 1 2012, they wet-leased an additional B-737 from Travel service.

In the summer of 2012, Sunwing wet-leased 2 B-767s from Portugal's EuroAtlantic Airlines:
Then during the 2012-2013 winter season they are dry-leasing 15 B-737s from several European Airlines, Travel Service, Thomson, TUIfly, and JetAirfly and 4 addtional B-737 on wet-lease from Travel Service

For a grand total of 39 imported aircraft in 24 months (with foreign pilots) against 7 aircraft that they sent to Europe, plus 12 pilots.

In the past 6 years, Sunwing sent to Europe a grand total of 19 aircraft, yet this year alone they are brining 21 foreign aircraft and pilots into Canada

Is this what you call a reciprocal agreement ?

Let me go over your own new Guidelines, revised in the summer of 2012.

Canadian interests: Reciprocal employment, General guidelines R205(b), C20

R205(b) allows foreign workers to take up employment in Canada when Canadians have similar reciprocal opportunities abroad.

Entry under reciprocal provisions should result in a neutral labour market impact.
There are formally-recognized reciprocal programs such as International Experience Canada program (See section 5.34).

However this provision also allows for admission of workers in other cases where reciprocity is demonstrated by the Canadian employer (or specific program administrator). Academic institutions may initiate exchanges under C20 as long as they are reciprocal, and licensing and medical requirements (if applicable) are met.

The onus is on the institutions and/or applicants to demonstrate that reciprocity exists.
This could be indicated in the exchange agreement between the Canadian and foreign parties, a letter from the receiving Canadian institution, the work contract (if it provides evidence of reciprocity) and, if necessary, the officer can request documents and/or data to enable verification of reciprocal employment volumes. Bona fide evidence of reciprocity will allow the officer to issue a work permit.
TIP: A useful starting point can be a company’s HR Plan or its “Global Mobility Policy “ within their HR directives, which may provide evidence that an exchange program is in place and, depending on the balance of bilateral flow, may indicate that it is reciprocal in practice.
It is not necessary that there be exact reciprocity (i.e. one for one exchange), but the general order of magnitude of exchanges should be reasonably similar on an annual basis. In assessing reciprocity, one would consider the relative number and percentage. For example, for exchanges involving larger numbers of foreign nationals (e.g. greater than 25), officers could require a higher minimum proportion of Canadians employed abroad to foreign nationals employed in Canada (e.g. at least 75%) than for smaller exchanges.
When the entities involved have no history of conducting reciprocal exchanges with Canada, it is reasonable to initially limit work permits to a small number of individuals and that subsequent work permits be issued only when reciprocity has been demonstrated.
When organizations have a demonstrated history of reciprocal exchanges, they may be permitted some flexibility in the flow of exchange on an annual basis, as long as they are able to demonstrate that the exchanges are similar over a reasonable period of time (e.g.five years), there is a general neutral impact on the labour market.
In assessing reciprocity, officers can consider not only the number of individuals working in Canada and abroad, but also employment duration and job level.
If evidence of reciprocity is not presented to the satisfaction of the officer, the work permit may be refused, or the applicant may be notified that an LMO must be obtained for further consideration of a work permit.

I fail to understand how CIC can possibly use the above guidelines to still provide Sunwing Airlines with so many work permits for its foreign pilots. I really wish you would come out of your mutism and explain what the policies really are. There is no way this is going to be tolerated any longer by Canadian pilots.



Regards,


Gilles Hudicourt

[trey kule]

There is no way this is going to be tolerated any longer by Canadian pilots

That is the quite the claim you are making!

Are you now speaking for me and all Canadian pilots on this issue?

[60N30W]

There is no way this is going to be tolerated any longer by Canadian pilots

That is the quite the claim you are making!

Are you now speaking for me and all Canadian pilots on this issue?

I would say Gilles is speaking for all Canadian pilots who want to have a descent well paying job in Canada and not be part of the rush to the bottom.


Regards,

60N30W

[Gilles Hudicourt]

There is no way this is going to be tolerated any longer by Canadian pilots

That is the quite the claim you are making!

Are you now speaking for me and all Canadian pilots on this issue?

I am speaking for the three major groups who replied in double digits to the survey which together represent 92% of pilots.

viewtopic.php?f=5&t=85594&start=25

I know that you are one of the single digits respondents, part of the 8% that think otherwise, and I most certainly do not speak for you. You certainly will not answer the call when time comes for action, as you probably also failed to write to your MP, to the PM, or sign the petition.

[Dick]

All right, please let me preface this entire post by saying that I agree, that for the sake of Canadian pilots, a reciprocity agreement of 1:1 is a common goal that we should all be working towards.

I spoke up once before when Mr. Hudicourt commented about what somebody saw in the CAE Sim facilty in YUL. Mr. Hudicourt then took that information and turned it into an inflammatory post about the foreign pilots arriving in Canada to work for Sunwing. I believe that a training event in a private facility such as CAE should be just that, private. I find it completely unprofessional that a training event with a possible unfortunate outcome should be ammunition to further a cause that Mr. Hudicourt has taken upon himself. I was accused of trying to muddy his cause.

In my opinion, one Canadian pilot working overseas is equal to one foreign pilot working in Canada. Wet lease, dry lease, reciprocal, LMO. It doesn't matter what you call it, it's one for one.

Now, a little history as to how this lopsided foreign worker program evolved. Initially, Sunwing was involved with a reciprocal agreement with European carriers. This agreement, at first, benefitted Canadian pilots, as more pilots found work overseas than foreigners were brought to Canada. Now Air Transat, feeling the competition, elected to farm out some of their work to Canjet. It was Canjet who came up with the brilliant idea that there was a shortage of pilots in Canada. With this in mind, they did a Labour Market Assessment, and convinced the government that there was a shortage of pilots in Canada that could only be filled by bringing in foreign pilots. The government allowed this to happen, and Canjet did so without sending any Canadian pilots overseas to reciprocate. It was this LMO method that Mr. Hudicourt had accused Sunwing of exploiting, until tonight.

Mr. Hudicourt has claimed that regardless of the fact that he is a pilot for Air Transat, and by default has a vested interest in their success, he is on this mission entirely with the best interest of Canadian pilots in mind. He claims that Canjet is squarely in his sights, even though his parent company is responsible for, and profits from their success.

Then he writes this letter to Erica Usher. I won't reprint the entire letter, however please allow me to paraphrase some comments; "I saw Sunwing", "not respected by Sunwing", "Sunwing sent", "In 2012, Sunwing sent", "in the past 24 months, Sunwing", "In the summer of 2011, Sunwing", "Sunwing wet-leased", "Sunwing sent to Europe", "still provide Sunwing Airlines". Just to be clear, I quoted every time Mr. Hudicourt mentioned both Sunwing, and Canjet, the airline that provides lift directly for his parent company.

I know the first criticism that I will receive is that I'm trying to muddy the water, that I am being "uncanadian" by not supporting Mr. Hudicourts cause. However, a mans quest for the survival of his company should not be misconstrued as a plea to save the piloting profession for Canadians. A quick look around, a look at our "flag carrier" will prove to be a much greater threat to our profession than a lopsided reciprocal pilot agreement that threatens one of Canada's vacation carriers.

Once Mr. Hudicourt and his colleagues have taken care of their own problems, namely Canjet and their Union which openly support the hiring of foreign pilots under the LMO/shortage of pilots program, Will I truly believe that he has the true interest of Canadian pilots at heart.

.

[Gilles Hudicourt]

All right, please let me preface this entire post by saying that I agree, that for the sake of Canadian pilots, a reciprocity agreement of 1:1 is a common goal that we should all be working towards.

1) I spoke up once before when Mr. Hudicourt commented about what somebody saw in the CAE Sim facilty in YUL. Mr. Hudicourt then took that information and turned it into an inflammatory post about the foreign pilots arriving in Canada to work for Sunwing. I believe that a training event in a private facility such as CAE should be just that, private. I find it completely unprofessional that a training event with a possible unfortunate outcome should be ammunition to further a cause that Mr. Hudicourt has taken upon himself. I was accused of trying to muddy his cause.

2) In my opinion, one Canadian pilot working overseas is equal to one foreign pilot working in Canada. Wet lease, dry lease, reciprocal, LMO. It doesn't matter what you call it, it's one for one.

3) Now, a little history as to how this lopsided foreign worker program evolved. Initially, Sunwing was involved with a reciprocal agreement with European carriers. This agreement, at first, benefitted Canadian pilots, as more pilots found work overseas than foreigners were brought to Canada. Now Air Transat, feeling the competition, elected to farm out some of their work to Canjet. It was Canjet who came up with the brilliant idea that there was a shortage of pilots in Canada. With this in mind, they did a Labour Market Assessment, and convinced the government that there was a shortage of pilots in Canada that could only be filled by bringing in foreign pilots. The government allowed this to happen, and Canjet did so without sending any Canadian pilots overseas to reciprocate. It was this LMO method that Mr. Hudicourt had accused Sunwing of exploiting, until tonight.

4) Mr. Hudicourt has claimed that regardless of the fact that he is a pilot for Air Transat, and by default has a vested interest in their success, he is on this mission entirely with the best interest of Canadian pilots in mind. He claims that Canjet is squarely in his sights, even though his parent company is responsible for, and profits from their success.

5) Then he writes this letter to Erica Usher. I won't reprint the entire letter, however please allow me to paraphrase some comments; "I saw Sunwing", "not respected by Sunwing", "Sunwing sent", "In 2012, Sunwing sent", "in the past 24 months, Sunwing", "In the summer of 2011, Sunwing", "Sunwing wet-leased", "Sunwing sent to Europe", "still provide Sunwing Airlines". Just to be clear, I quoted every time Mr. Hudicourt mentioned both Sunwing, and Canjet, the airline that provides lift directly for his parent company.

6) I know the first criticism that I will receive is that I'm trying to muddy the water, that I am being "uncanadian" by not supporting Mr. Hudicourts cause. However, a mans quest for the survival of his company should not be misconstrued as a plea to save the piloting profession for Canadians. A quick look around, a look at our "flag carrier" will prove to be a much greater threat to our profession than a lopsided reciprocal pilot agreement that threatens one of Canada's vacation carriers.

7) Once Mr. Hudicourt and his colleagues have taken care of their own problems, namely Canjet and their Union which openly support the hiring of foreign pilots under the LMO/shortage of pilots program, Will I truly believe that he has the true interest of Canadian pilots at heart.

.

1) The CAE incident was in the context of 7 Travel Service Pilots failing their rides in Canada, going back home after being refused as pilots at Sunwing and one month later having these very same seven pilots come back to fly for Sunwing at the controls of a Travel Service aircraft but as a wet-lease, which did not require its pilots to have to submit to a Sim ride in Canada. By the way, this very issue, which you call "private", was raised this very morning by an MP at the House Transportation Committee, with journalists present. Although it may be true that on that particular day, and which I wrote about, the Sunwing pilots that failed their ride were not foreign temporary pilots, my colleagues who were there at the time and who witnessed the event and saw and heard the pilots, and saw their names on the board, and believed that they were foreign Temporary Pilots. They may have made a mistake. I admit it.

2) IF you think that wet-lease pilots count, I can live with it, but they must count in both directions. Not in one as Sunwing counts them. If wet-lease pilots are to be counted, all that I am saying is that foreign pilots who come to Canada at the controls of foreign wet-leases must be counted too. There were the pilots of the 2 767s this summer and the pilots of the 4 737s this winter, so about 70 to 80 pilots in wet-leases alone this year, in addition to the 130 pilots they are briging in under work permits.

3) I was always clear that Canjet imported their pilots with LMOs and Sunwing with "Reciprocity", although Sunwing imported a few pilots through LMOs last year. This year, we thought we had assurance from CIC that they had understood that Sunwing had been cheating with reciprocity and that they would no longer be allowed to cheat. When Sunwing posted an add for type-rated pilots on Sept 11th, I assumed that it was because they had been turned down for reciprocity and were laying the ground for an LMO applicatin, which is the only recourse if you are turned down for reciprocity. When the foreign pilots began to arrive, and to fly, I did not know under which program they were being allowed into Canada THIS year, that is until this morning when I got confirmation that it was not under an LMO.

4) I have a vested interest in Air Transat. If Group Transat does away with AT and give all the flying away to other companies, I am out of a job. My interest is in Air Transat. I think we could compete with SW if we had our own narrow bodies.

5) Mrs Usher, to whom I addressed this letter, is a CIC employee who is the head of the reciprocity program which only concerns Sunwing. I have no business talking with her about Canjet, which only sources its foreign pilots through LMOs, which are provided by another government of Canada agency, HRSDC. That probably explains why my letter to her is all "Sunwing this" and "Sunwing that". But that is just a detail for you isn't it ? It wouldn't have prevented you form making that comment even if you knew.

6) Now please point to me at your own effort to save anything you think is a threat to our profession. All I see is you trying to sabotage my efforts.

7) We are working very hard on Canjet and don't be surprised when you see the Canjet issue fixed before Sunwing. I agree to 1:1 reciprocity but not to LMOs

[Dick]

1) I'm glad you have their names. I'm not sure what you're trying to prove or insuate by that? Please let me know what you are getting at. I'm flattered that a Sunwing crew doing their PPC was a topic of conversation In the house of commons. Relying on third party information in this case did not prove to be very helpful in this situation. Maybe it works better for you elsewhere? I'm going to take a guess, but I'm pretty sure, any pilot in Canada doing a PPC is going to do so under the expectation that an Air Transat Pilot won't turn it into a conversation piece in the house of commons? At least that's my expectation doing a PPC.
2) As I said, one for one. Wet lease, dry lease, donkey pilot, doesn't matter. One for one. Regardless of Logo on your tail, one for one.
3) A lot of assumptions have been made. I think facts need to prevail.
4) Put the pressure on Transat AT to get narrow bodies.
5) Talking about about Canjet would put things into perspective and paint the whole picture. Just talking about Sunwing without bringing Canjet into the the picture is deciet via omission.
6) Gilles, I'm not trying to sabotage your efforts. There are much bigger fish to fry out there. AC, Jazz, SkyRegional for example. That is the race to the bottom.
7) We are working hard on keeping our pilot group Canadian. Don't be surprised when we get there before you. As I said, 1:1, I don't care what you call it.

[Gilles Hudicourt]

1)
2) As I said, one for one. Wet lease, dry lease, donkey pilot, doesn't matter. One for one. Regardless of Logo on your tail, one for one.
7) We are working hard on keeping our pilot group Canadian. Don't be surprised when we get there before you. As I said, 1:1, I don't care what you call it.

Do you guys make a habit of turning everything I write upside down ? The seven Travel Service pilots who failed their rides and then flew Suwning Wet-Leases is what was being talked about at the House of Commons. And I never heard of the guy who brought it up.

Below is what I posted on another thread for another guy with your arguments about wet-lease pilots counting. Try to understand, or don't try, I don't really care.

Reciprocity was not invented by Sunwing. They found it inside the Immigration and Refugee Protection Regulations and decided to exploit it.

It's in Division 3 of the those regulations and the title of that section is "Issuance of Work Permits"

You can go see for yourself here:

http://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/regu ... .html#h-97

Section 200 talks about work permits in general, and section 203 about the LMOs and section 205 (b) about reciprocity.

205. A work permit may be issued under section 200 to a foreign national who intends to perform work that

(b) would create or maintain reciprocal employment of Canadian citizens or permanent residents of Canada in other countries;

If you were to go back a few pages and look up Section 186 whose title is "Work Without a Permit"

That covers the wet-lease pilots.

186. A foreign national may work in Canada without a work permit

(s) as a member of a crew who is employed by a foreign company aboard a means of transportation that
(i) is foreign-owned and not registered in Canada, and
(ii) is engaged primarily in international transportation;

Reciprocity is a work permit program and the people who administer it control work permits to foreigners under reciprocity. They have one valve in their hand, all it does is control the number of foreign pilots that come into Canada and its called "reciprocity work permits". When you demonstrate that you sent pilots on reciprocity, they are supposed to open the work permit valve an equal amount. When you don't demonstrate reciprocity they can close the valve and you can then go try to still import the foreign pilots through other sources, which are the LMO, controlled by HRSDC, or the Wet-Leases which are controlled by the CTA. The CIC officer in charge of reciprocity has no say in the pilots that are allowed into Canada though LMOs or through wet-leases, so how can he/she administer and control a reciprocity program that allows pilots into Canada in a manner by-passing him ? There are three valves and all he controls is one of them.

If you fail to demonstrate reciprocity, and CIC turns you down, you can still import foreign pilots through other methods. So how can those other methods be counted in reciprocity ?

http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/resources/ ... 01-eng.pdf

If evidence of reciprocity is not presented to the satisfaction of the officer, the work permit may be refused, or the applicant may be notified that an LMO must be obtained for further consideration of a work permit.

That is why I claim that wet-lease and LMO pilots do not count in reciprocity. In either direction. Those that count them are being fraudulent.

[trey kule]

Fraudulent?

That is rather a strong word as it implies criminal intent. Perhaps you could tone done the rhetoric a bit. You must be careful not to cross the line

[Gilles Hudicourt]

Fraudulent?

That is rather a strong word as it implies criminal intent. Perhaps you could tone done the rhetoric a bit. If you are suggesting that, I as one who might calculate things that way am engaging in a fraud then you have crossed the line. That is untrue. And it is libellous.

Now intimidation. Whats next ?

fraudulent

adj
1. acting with or having the intent to deceive
2. relating to or proceeding from fraud or dishonest action
[from Latin fraudulentus deceitful]

Like when you export 4 aircraft and pilots to Europe and in "reciprocity" you import 21 aircraft and pilots.

You have a better word ?

[livin']

Keep doing what you are doing Gilles.

The majority of us have your back.

[snowball]

I don't know how anyone could NOT side with Gilles attempts. You are either on one of two sides. Gilles side or the side that wishes to worsen a pilots career in Canada. I will take Gilles side among the majority of Canadian pilots I'm sure. Thank Gilles!

[ggofp]

For the rest of his life Gilles should never have to buy a beer amongst Canadian pilots!!!!!!!!!

[mbav8r]

Dick,
I don't know how anyone of average intelligence could make this argument;

2) As I said, one for one. Wet lease, dry lease, donkey pilot, doesn't matter. One for one. Regardless of Logo on your tail, one for one.

You are aware that Sunwing and Transat or any other airline in Canada are separate companies with separate bank accounts.

However, a mans quest for the survival of his company should not be misconstrued as a plea to save the piloting profession for Canadians.

This is not one mans quest to save his company, ALPA Canada has been working behind the scenes long before Gilles came onto the scene, I will suggest the attention Mr. Hudicourt has given this, has boosted the headway being made and the visiblity of the issue significantly. Thank you for that, Gilles! There is a reason ALPA Canada has made this their top priority.

“ALPA has long advocated for restricting this practice as it allows foreign pilots to perform flying that can and should be done by Canadian pilots,” said a spokesperson for the ALPA. “At a time when a number of qualified Canadian pilots have been furloughed from their airlines, ALPA believes that the granting of this application undermines the viability of Canadian airlines and deprives Canadian pilots of work opportunities.”

If this is allowed to continue, it will threaten many more jobs than Transat, in fact if you don't think Sunwing flooding the market had anything to do with why Thomas Cook cancelled the 57 program with Jazz, well you know what I'm insinuating...

[Dick]

When I said regardless of the logo on your tail, I simply meant that the same rule needs to be applied equally to everyone.
As I stated before, as long as a reciprocal agreement is just that, I don't have a problem with it. I'm not against what Mr. Hudicourt is advocating for, I am merely challenging some of his techniques.

[TrailerParkBoy]

If looking out for the Canadian pilot isn't good enough to fight for this, what about the uneducated general public, also Canadian citizens, who board an aircraft from another country, flown by pilot from another country, who is not necessarily governed by Transport Canada!

The Canadian passengers should know who they are flying with!

[GRK]

I see your point re the general public...sadly the majority of consumers just don't really care about it. They board foreign carriers all the time all over the world without much thought. A cheap ticket is a cheap ticket and that's all they care about. If by chance the pressure that is being applied to keep a balance of work in Canada, for Canadian pilots works, and it causes costs and prices to go up...the public you mention will just look for another cheap ticket somewhere else! Ask Joe Public if he even knows what sort of licence or training the two up front have, or are they overly concerned about maintenance programs? Are they worried about whether or not TC has any oversight on the operation? Not in most cases, it's about the 400 bucks per week of the all inclusive tequila and burrito barrage they are about to take part in. It's their once a year get out of the deep freeze drink all you can bonanza, and nothing is gonna get in my way vacation. I don't mean to talk down to the traveling public here, but having seen it all happen so many times before, it's not gonna have an effect on how the consumer buys a ticket for his/her winter piss up. Gilles, I too admire your quest, and support the effort where I can. Just be aware that the gang who buys the tickets are fickle, and will throw companies under a bus to get that extra dollar off a vacation.

[frog]

I am afraid it boils down to that.
Also I wonder what is cheaper for the government,
having canadian pilots on EI during the off season or having foreign pilots coming during the peak season without paying taxes...on the short term anyway.
(Long term would be the problem of the next government).

[Gilles Hudicourt]

I realize a lot of people do not understand reciprocity, and how it should be done, so I have decided to once again explain how it should be done, to be fair and legal.

Sunwing keeps only 6 aircraft in Canada in the summer but wants to operate 29 aircraft in Canada in the winter season. It's possible inside of legitimate reciprocity program and here is how. Lets assume they need 7 crew per aircraft in the summer, or 14 pilots pe raircraft, and 6 crews or 12 pilots per aircraft for the winter season.

Summer pilots : 6 * 14 = 84
Winter pilots : 29 * 12 = 348

For equal 1:1 reciprocity to work, they must employ 216 full time Canadian pilots.

In the winter, they need to hire 132 seasonal European pilots, to bring their pilot staff to 348.

In the summer, they must send an equal number to Europe, 132, which leaves 84 in Canada. Or the full 216 can take turns making sure there are always 132 pilots in Europe all summer.

This is the only way that such a business model can do reciprocity legally. Obviously, this cannot be done by doing strictly wet-leases, for there is no way Sunwing can keep 132 pilots busy in Europe by flying 4 Sunwing aircraft. The four wet-lease may go to Europe but that will only keep 56 pilots busy. The other 76 pilots will need to fly European registered aircraft while in Europe.

Of course having 132 pilots of a staff of of 216 spend six months in Europe each summer is a strain, but this is the only way that a true and fair reciprocity pilot swapping scheme can support the business model that Sunwing has at the moment. This is caused of course by the huge difference between the small number of year round aircraft and the high number of winter aircraft they require. They could alleviate this situation by either increasing the number of aircraft and crews they keep flying in Canada in the summer, or reducing the number of aircraft they import seasonally, or a combination of both.

Canjet positioned itself to do just exactly what I described above but were unable, from what I understand, to find the European partners to do it with.

Canjet has 5 full time aircraft but employs 118 full time pilots. In the winter, they grow to 12 aircraft but import just 32 foreign pilots under an LMO.
If they were to find a European partner to do reciprocity with, all they would need to do is to send 32 of the 118 pilots to Europe and they would no longer need to resort to LMOs to hire the foreigners.

[bigskyjoc]

Pilots looking out for pilots. That is a new one for me (and I've been around). As the line up to fly a Sky Regional Embraer at $70k/year gets longer and longer. Yet those pilots employed by Sky Regional on the Dash 8's are being denied to bid across. All this seems a bit rich as the cap in hand walk to the interviews continues at a steady pace. When I see Canjet mentioned equally as Sunwing in any correspondence or forum will i start to view any thread by Gilles with due attention.

[Gilles Hudicourt]

When I see Canjet mentioned equally as Sunwing in any correspondence or forum will i start to view any thread by Gilles with due attention.

No need to pay attention to what I write here. I already know where you stand:

The fact that we have foreigners flying Canadian aircraft while our very own are being laid off is deplorable. This should be forwarded immediately to our politicians and media. IMHO the line has been crossed.

[bigskyjoc]

When I see Canjet mentioned equally as Sunwing in any correspondence or forum will i start to view any thread by Gilles with due attention.

No need to pay attention to what I write here. I already know where you stand:

The fact that we have foreigners flying Canadian aircraft while our very own are being laid off is deplorable. This should be forwarded immediately to our politicians and media. IMHO the line has been crossed.

Yes and my stance remains the same. But how about your bias?

[Gilles Hudicourt]

But how about your bias?

The Air Transat pilot group has always wanted to operate the single aisle aircraft.
We didn't want it to go to Westjet when it did, we wanted to fly those ourselves.
We didn't want it to go to Canjet when it did, we wanted to fly those ourselves.
We do not want the Canjet contract renewed, we want those flights to come to Air Transat.
In the meantime, we are against Canjet making use of foreign pilots.
We think that if Canjet requires a type rating from seasonal applicants it is only to filter out any Canadians and hire type rated foreigners, not because there is a true lack of pilots in Canada but just to save themselves money.
The money that they save is saved on the back of Canadian taxpayers for two reasons:
1) in the process they leave un-employed Canadian pilots on EI
2) The foreign pilots they hire, pay no in income taxes in Canada while the Canadians they should have hired would have paid some.

I don't see how I could be biased for Canjet, I'm against the whole deal, from A to Z. Don't confuse me with others. In any case those others don't write on AvCanada.

[trey kule]

I realize a lot of people do not understand reciprocity, and how it should be done, so I have decided to once again explain how it should be done, to be fair and legal.

Are you quite sure, that " a lot of people" do not understand reciprocity., or just not your redefined and self serving version of it?
I liked the fair part best...fair meaning it has to go company by company, as if you do not define it that way, it is working just fine for Canadian pilots right now..So you redine it to suit your own bias or objectives, and then suggest that anyone who has a different understanding, does not really understand it. Despite all the atta boys and high fives, I think there are some people who may understand the concept quite well, and it may be a bit different from your understanding.
Lots of companies advertise type ratings as a requirement..You dont have to research farther than this website to find examples.
There are perhaps a few more companies than the three you keep bringing up.
I doubt whether you may be concerned about this, but if your little agenda made headway with the govt folks, it just might cause a backlash with some other countries and we could have far more pilots coming back to Canada unemployed....but hey..thats the big picture isnt it.
We should only be worried about that little group that bad ol Sunwings is ignoring.....

[60N30W]

Tres kule

".So you re-define it to suit your own bias or objectives,"

Could you provide an example of where Gilles has re-defined something to suit his agenda? ( For the record don't think he really has one, past insuring that everyone plays by the same rules) All I have seen in regard to reciprocity has been straight out of the government's published policies and guidelines.


Regards,

60N30W