I quote from the “The Gazette” June 4, 2003
“In forcing the merger of the country’s two national carriers, the Federal Government pushed $6 Billion on to AC debt load rather then face the bankruptcy of CDN. Then it insisted AC could not lay off CDN employees, thus creating a single airline with impossibly bloated staff and management.
The Federal Government has been hanging back, hoping it will not have to deal with the political fallout of a collapse: with travelers stranded all over the world, the country’s air-transport net-work in tatters and AC employees stuck with a pension plan with a $1.3 billion deficit”