Transport committee  I don't have a number directly in front of me, sir. Again, my responsibilities are about the safety of the airline.

Transport committee  Not at this time. We continue to monitor it.

Transport committee  I would strongly suggest that if you look at the requirements for safety management systems, the ability to remove and break down silos is one of its greatest strengths. It looks for that and if you don't have that naturally occurring within your airline, Transport Canada will be there to ensure that with the expectations set out, you have committees, etc., with the ability to ensure that it's not operating in a siloed approach.

Transport committee  Flight attendants at WestJet are involved very closely with any operational change. That's one of the tenets of a strong safety management system, that one of the components or the expectations is you have strong processes around the safe management of change. Change management is tough for everyone, inspectors and employees alike, within airlines and within transport.

Transport committee  We actually came out of one of the large assessment activities, so one in 50 was part of that oversight. It was a complete assessment that basically started back in November with the off-site activities, culminating in February. We also see in-flight cabin safety inspectors who travel on the airlines.

Transport committee  A promise we made to the minister as part of incorporating the exemption was the fact that the safety management system required to provide that oversight is what we've had—surveillance activity with Transport Canada inspectors on board as well through the implementation. We take a look at the data.

Transport committee  That's all ongoing. We use something similar to what Sam spoke to. We use the cabin operations safety audit, COSA. We have flight attendants, who are on board all the time, looking to see how flight attendants operate in the environment and ensure that all the procedures are being met and that there's been no reduction in safety margins.

Transport committee  It's sort of the same situation. Going through the flow chart, the president and chief executive officer is the one who is the accountable executive under the regulation for WestJet. Then, of course, certain duties and responsibilities are delegated out; however, the actual accountability cannot be delegated away.

Transport committee  I'll also give you an opportunity to.... Oh, he has left the room at the moment. Mr. Sullivan had a question and I didn't get a chance to rebut. I wouldn't mind taking that opportunity, as well. First and foremost, if you look at an international standard, one in 50 very much is an equivalent standard to one in 40.

Transport committee  To highlight the robustness of the regulatory framework around it as well, even though WestJet has elected to be a non-DG carrier, so that we don't have holes in the system, Transport Canada still requires us to go through almost the same level of training with our front-line employees, so that we have that awareness and don't provide that input.

Transport committee  You'd have to know what isn't allowed, so that you have those same barriers that way, and that's what we provide.

Transport committee  There are two points to that. WestJet currently is operating under exemption for one in 50 in Canada. Actually, one in 50 has been used in Canada under exemption for many years in 50-seat aircraft. Aircraft certified under regulation in Canada are certified to one in 50; that's the international standard.

Transport committee  The best way to put that together might be as a question that was posed earlier about employee involvement. We undertake numerous campaigns, so obviously you need an employee group that feels comfortable, that feels safe about bringing forward hazards. That's how the system works.

Transport committee  I'd be happy to take on that one. It's ongoing. When you take a look at it, all of us have code-sharing agreements and we actually undergo ongoing audits by our code-share partners. We're all members of IOSA, the IATA operational safety audit. Every two years we have a complete audit done to international standards that include safety management systems.

Transport committee  No. Basically the SMS is new, because most other carriers in the world weren't up to Canada's safety management standards. We've been the only airline that's actually been able to fulfill that for the past couple of years.