Canada vows fight to keep aviation body

QUEBEC— Prime Minister Stephen Harper says there is absolutely no reasonable case to move the International Civil Aviation Organization out of Montreal.

“It’s been based in Montreal for a very long time,” Harper told a news conference in Quebec City on Friday. “Montreal, Quebec, Canada have been very good hosts from everything I understand.

“I’m certainly not aware of any serious complaints about how we host the organization. Montreal’s a sophisticated city that is a hub of the aerospace industry around the world.”

The ICAO, which sets international standards for civil aviation, has been in Montreal since it first opened in 1946.

Out of the blue last month, Qatar presented ICAO with an offer to serve as the new permanent seat of the organization beginning in 2016. It included construction of new premises, paying to move materials and staffers, and paying for all expenses resulting from staff terminations and severance packages, according to the UN agency. Making matters worse, Qatar did not tell Foreign Minister John Baird about it when he visited the Gulf nation last month.

Harper’s comments came after Baird and Quebec cabinet minister Jean-François Lisée held a news conference in Montreal to announce a common front to prevent ICAO from moving to Qatar.

Baird said all the parties involved in the bid to keep ICAO in Montreal, including businesses and municipal politicians, are united.

“I want to assure you that the federal government understands what’s at stake here,” Baird said.

Also backing Canada’s bid are international unions who say a move to Qatar goes against ICAO’s mandate.

Losing the ICAO would be a financial and political blow to Canada.

For the bid to prevail, a minimum of 60 per cent of the ICAO’s 191 member states must sign off, a threshold that could send a strong rebuke to Canada.

A vote is set for September.