Thank you, Ms. Biguzs and members of the committee.
The civil aviation safety program has always focused on addressing the highest-risk areas of the sector, and we feel it has succeeded in improving aviation safety. In fact, in 2011 Canada recorded the lowest number of accidents for Canadian-registered aircraft since 1976. Statistics such as these reinforce the fact that Canada has one of the safest aviation systems in the world.
That said, there is always room for improvement, and the Auditor General's report provides us with valuable recommendations on how to strengthen the risk-based approach that we use.
Transport Canada is working to move away from a “one size fits all” approach, and to make its rulemaking process more responsive to safety priorities, while engaging the right people at the right time on the right issues.
By March 2013, the department will have a new process in place that will accelerate follow-up on significant safety issues raised by stakeholders.
The Auditor General recommended that Transport Canada conduct inspections according to established methodology and that staff receive all necessary training. I'm happy to report that we have reviewed and updated our surveillance procedure documentation, and we are now in the process of focus-testing these changes with our inspectorate to ensure it meets their needs.
A centralized surveillance information management system will be ready in December, along with associated user training to be completed by March 2013.
All inspectors have been trained to exercise their delegated authority as set out in the department's civil aviation training policy, and they have all completed updated training on new surveillance procedures. A needs analysis is taking place to determine if additional speciality training is required.
The Auditor General also recommended that Transport Canada clarify the information on aviation organizations used in developing risk profiles and surveillance plans. Civil aviation has introduced new tools, such as a risk indicator tool and accompanying employee training, which was launched in April 2012 and now provides a standardized approach to developing risk profiles.
We also have a surveillance planning tool that reflects a move from fixed surveillance frequencies to new risk-based surveillance intervals. Under the new approach, the frequency of planned inspections increases as risk increases. Combined with a five-year planning horizon, this allows resources to be allocated to the highest-priority enterprises while ensuring that all enterprises have a planned inspection schedule. The new planning tool is being piloted now, and the first full year it will be used is 2013-14.
Subsequent to the release of our action plan, civil aviation has focused in more depth on enforcement activities and has identified additional actions to strengthen this aspect of the program.
There is regular monitoring of overall surveillance activity at the national level. The national management team of the Civil Aviation Program reviews activity monthly to determine whether planned activities are being carried out and whether adjustments need to be made.
In his report, the Auditor General called for an internal quality assurance program. Now that work has advanced on key program areas, Transport Canada has developed quality assurance procedures and has prepared a comprehensive quality assurance plan, and implementation of the plan has started. This will ensure that our procedures are consistently followed and continuously improved.
Transport Canada has always ensured that civil aviation has an appropriate number of inspectors. Even during a time of overall public service downsizing, we are continuing to recruit inspectors to maintain the strength of our workforce. The Auditor General recommended that we identify the resources we will need to plan and conduct inspections under our new surveillance approach and develop a strategy to obtain them.
All this presents the obvious question: do we have an appropriate number of inspectors to fulfill our mandate? Knowing whether we have the right number of resources means knowing whether our resources are being allocated effectively and our surveillance activities are being carried out efficiently.
Given our understanding of the risk in the system, I believe we do have an adequate number of resources. To confirm this, we're using a more robust method to determine how to best apply resources in conducting surveillance activities. We're improving our understanding of whether the time we spend conducting individual inspections is appropriate and we are assessing whether we are assuming acceptable levels of risk.extra text box
In particular, the new approach to surveillance planning allows us to forecast the resources needed to meet unplanned surveillance activities, as well as to allow for planned surveillance needs, up to five years into the future.
We recognize that we need to continue to improve our program, which is why Transport Canada's civil aviation action plan to 2013 was developed and is now being implemented. The Auditor General's report confirmed that the issues we had identified and the actions we had begun taking were the right ones. We are confident that in the coming years our actions can fully respond to the Auditor General's recommendation and contribute to Transport Canada's strong risk-based aviation safety program. This will ensure that our aviation safety record continues to be one that Canadians can be proud of and have confidence in.
Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman, and members of the committee. We would be happy to answer any questions that you might have in this regard.