Transport committee  No, but I think I came before and after.

Transport committee  Yes.

Transport committee  I believe that is what he said, yes.

Transport committee  Absolutely, sir, more than ever. I have read some of the documents that were produced following the assessments of the big airlines. With the old system, there is no way we would have been able to go so deep or so far in the assessment of the culture of a company. Sure, the tools you pretend we have abolished have not been used a lot in the last year, we will admit, but that's because we were assessing all the carriers at once.

Transport committee  I don't quite understand how the decision to postpone the SMS roll-out to small carriers can be linked to the situation of large carriers. I don't see any direct connection between the two. We met with Mr. Slunder on two or three occasions. We said we wanted to work with the union to improve the Safety Management System and in particular, Transport Canada's oversight role.

Transport committee  That is what they told me face to face as well.

Transport committee  That is correct, but we are not trying to fill above 878; the number we want to reach is 878.

Transport committee  Yes, that is correct.

Transport committee  That is correct, sir. In fact, one of the most important benefits of SMS is to be proactive. Rather than waiting for an incident or an accident to occur, SMS forces companies to analyze everything, to receive reports from all employees, and to be more proactive in the management of any kind of safety issues and thereby prevent incidents or accidents from happening.

Transport committee  That is correct, and we're probably the most advanced country at this point.

Transport committee  That is correct, sir. All the regulations and everything that applied before continues to apply today. SMS is an additional layer of regulations.

Transport committee  That is correct, sir.

Transport committee  No. We have made some agency savings in civil aviation. We have reduced a few director positions, but that's about the extent of the reduction. And as far as I know--and I hope so--there are no reductions ahead.

Transport committee  That is correct, sir. Nothing has changed for them.

Transport committee  Certainly not. And I would know, I presume.