Air Canada strike: As intervention calls grow, ‘we’re not going to do that,’ Trudeau says

Air Canada's CEO said in a statement that around 80 per cent of the airline's passengers could be affected by the looming work stoppages.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says the onus is on Air Canada and the pilots’ union to reach a deal to avoid a strike or lockout — and not on the federal government.

“Every time there’s a strike, people say, ‘Oh, you’ll get the government to come in and fix it.’ We’re not going to do that,” Trudeau said, speaking to reporters in Montreal on Friday.

“I’m not going to put my thumb on the scale on either side. It is up to Air Canada and the pilots union to do the work to figure out how to make sure that they are not hurting millions of Canadians who rely on air travel, thousands and thousands of businesses across this country who will be hurt if they can’t get the work done at the bargaining table,” he said.

Trudeau said the federal government is continuing to put “pressure” on Air Canada and the union representing their pilots to reach a deal at the negotiating table.

“We need to make sure the parties are working extremely hard to resolve this. Minister of Labour Steve MacKinnon met with both parties yesterday. He’s continuing to put pressure on them by highlighting that millions of Canadians and that thousands upon thousands of businesses rely on Air Canada every single day for for their success,” Trudeau said.

He added, “We’re going to continue to put all the pressure we can on the parties to resolve things where they need to – at the bargaining table – as quickly as possible.”

Air Canada could start winding up operations and cancelling flights imminently ahead of Sunday’s strike deadline.

If the union representing its pilots fail to come to a negotiated settlement to avoid a strike or shutdown, the federal government must be prepared to bring in binding arbitration or force pilots back to work, a group representing small businesses said on Friday morning.