Transport committee  Yes.

Transport committee  Yes, sir.

Transport committee  Yes.

Transport committee  Well, actually, for aviation it was mentioned through the discussions around the Aeronautics Act. But we have been talking about SMS for many, many years at Transport Canada, since the mid-nineties, actually. We started consulting in aviation in the year 2000, and we implemented the first regulation on the rail sector in rail safety in March 2001, I believe.

Transport committee  I can't answer that now.

Transport committee  The number of positions has in fact increased significantly over the last 20 years. I think we debated that here in committee a few years ago; I may have some figures that go back. But for a number of reasons it has increased significantly. For the last few years it has been hovering around 871 and now 878 positions, of which 98 are vacant today.

Transport committee  I don't know by heart, but we could find that for you.

Transport committee  That's because you take the assumption or believe in the assumption that more traffic equals more inspectors. In fact, as I've said before here, we've asked risk experts whether the system would be safer if we increased the number of inspectors so much that we had enough to put one on every plane at every airport, at every port on every ship—

Transport committee  We believe we are meeting them, but we believe there is room for improvement; this is what we're doing now. But we do believe we're meeting them.

Transport committee  We don't think a review such as you mentioned is needed at this point in time; it's a continuous process. We are now completing the assessment. By the end of March, we will have completed all of the carriers under 705, and, with the comments that we will have from our managers and from our inspectors, we will be able to further improve our staff instructions to our inspectors and then determine the cycle for the next three years for those carriers.

Transport committee  No, I cannot give it to you just like that, but we have various systems to collect information or to listen to comments from industry. We have an internal system, which is called CAIRS, that can be used by external parties. But more importantly, among all of those carriers whom we are looking at now, we are interviewing in total probably hundreds and hundreds of people.

Transport committee  That isn't true. We continue to conduct the same number of inspections. Do you think we have 878 inspectors who sit around the office playing cards? We continue to do inspections. Our inspectors are very professional, very serious people. We are learning a great deal from this exercise.

Transport committee  Currently, we have 98 vacant positions.

Transport committee  We have not slowed down the pace of implementation in the least. We have delayed the roll-out of the regulations to small carriers and small commercial operators. As for the large carriers like Air Canada, Sky Service, Air Transat and so forth, they are already regulated. We have not slowed down the pace in terms of implementing SMS.

Transport committee  The assessment is being done now. Of course, we always want to improve; this is not a stale system. As we go, the inspectors who participate in the assessments of the major carriers provide us with invaluable feedback, and using that feedback, and also in talking with the unions and listening to our inspectors, we will improve staff instruction.