The federal government will give Air Canada a series of low-interest loans of up to $5.4 billion and buy about $500 million worth of company stock, at a price of $23.18 per share. Interestingly, Air Canada was a government-owned airline from its creation in 1937 as Trans-Canada Air Lines until its privatization in 1988. In 1965 the company’s name was changed from Trans-Canada Air Lines to Air Canada, an idea brought forward by then-neophyte MP Jean Chretien. Before the loans and investment agreement was announced on Monday (April 12), Air Canada has received more than a half-billion dollars from the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy. Conditions of the aid package include Air Canada reinstating service to smaller regional airports where it had halted flights amid the pandemic. This means the company’s planes will be back in the Kamloops skies after local service was grounded in early January.