Transport committee  There has been, indeed, a significant increase in the number of inspectors since 1992-93. The reasons for those increases are written in the right column of the chart given to you. First of all, the Moshansky inquiry resulted in the department obtaining a number of additional resources in 1993-94 and 1994-95.

Transport committee  Yes, that's correct.

Transport committee  I did some research with the staff there, and we cannot find the specific resources referring to the exact number of 1,400. We did look back into--

Transport committee  First of all, this 1,400 number includes three kinds of inspectors. They include inspector pilots, as referred to by Mr. Laframboise; they include technical inspectors, TIs; and they include engineers. In the early 1990s, the time Judge Moshansky referred to, or at the time when we had 1,400, the 1,400 were the 1,400 inspectors in Transport Canada.

Transport committee  We cannot find the exact numbers. We did look recently, before I wrote to you, to find the exact numbers we had in the early nineties and we cannot find them in the documentation we have in the department.

Transport committee  Yes, you are. I really cannot remember, but we have looked for those numbers in the last few months and we just cannot find those exact numbers from the history of the department and we didn't want to induce the committee to error by providing approximates. But I can tell you that after the Moshansky inquiry, we did receive a significant number of additional FTEs--full-time equivalents--who were progressively implemented in the department in the nineties.

Transport committee  Yes.

Transport committee  But that was supported by me, without any issue, because this had been discussed for months, if not years, before.

Transport committee  It never crossed our minds. We never saw it.

Transport committee  The safety management systems are a philosophy. We are thoroughly convinced that this is the way to improve safety and reduce accidents.

Transport committee  I understand that, but I am having trouble making the connection between the number of hours of flying time of an inspector and the Safety Management System or the future inspection system. Will inspectors have to do different jobs in the future? Of course, because we will have to give them a lot of training so that they can visit a company and do a proper evaluation of the Safety Management System.

Transport committee  Absolutely.

Transport committee  Mr. Laframboise, I am so convinced that this is the right thing to do that we are introducing it into all the modes of transport. As I explained to you in June—and we will be putting out a document next week that—

Transport committee  We are always prepared to discuss issues. We are implementing the SMS for all modes of transport, rail, marine and others.

Transport committee  That's the highest risk.