Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Justice Moshansky, the pilots, the inspectors and the ICAO are in favour of the SMS. I am too. The only problem is that even the ICAO expects there will be adequate regulatory oversights. That is where we disagree.
Mr. Grégoire, I even had an opportunity to ask you at a committee meeting whether you could guarantee that there had been no budget cuts for pilot training. For two years now, I have been getting complaints from pilots whose hours of training have been reduced. I will tell you quite humbly that I thought this was a labour relations matter. I sometimes have trouble getting involved in labour relations issues. After two years, I realized that they were right: the nature of their work has been changed by the introduction of the Safety Management System.
The fact remains that for small companies such as DaxAir Inc., for example, pilots must be familiar with these systems. I agree with Mr. Jean that issues having to do with bolts will be easier with the SMS. However, there are some companies I cannot trust. I cannot trust new companies that will only be around for a year or two and which, for various reasons, because of a lack of money, even if they have a good SMS—The employees of companies of this type might be reluctant to file complaints, because they fear they will not get paid at the end of the week.
There must be an inspection system that will allow for random checks of any company at any time to see whether everything is in order. We should not have to wait one, two or three years—depending on the schedule you will introduce—before checking the SMS system. This is a service we need. And the ICAO has said the same thing.
After hearing Mr. Preuss, the pilots told us that by 2013, their numbers will be reduced by half. Today, you tell me that will not happen. Do you have any budget forecasts? As a manager, have you analyzed how much money you will need over the next five years to replace the pilots, or are you going to wait until the budget is introduced to tell us that?