Evidence of meeting #20 for Industry, Science and Technology in the 40th Parliament, 3rd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was measurement.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Liberal
Marc Garneau Liberal Westmount—Ville-Marie, QC
So they're part-time. Are there any privately hired inspectors who do the same task?
President, Measurement Canada, Department of Industry
Yes. We have approximately 26 registered technicians who are recognized to perform gas pump inspections at the present time.
Liberal
Marc Garneau Liberal Westmount—Ville-Marie, QC
So would that be about 110 inspectors in all, some of whom are only part-time available?
President, Measurement Canada, Department of Industry
That's true, and also some of the recognized technicians may do that as part of the job, or it may be their entire job.
Liberal
Marc Garneau Liberal Westmount—Ville-Marie, QC
And how many pumps does that work out to, currently, being inspected annually?
President, Measurement Canada, Department of Industry
In 2008 we did about 17,000, in 2009 I think we did about the same amount, and this year we're targeting for a lesser amount than that.
Liberal
Marc Garneau Liberal Westmount—Ville-Marie, QC
So trying to do my math here quickly, it seems like you get about 15% or 16% of the pumps annually. That would be roughly.
Liberal
Marc Garneau Liberal Westmount—Ville-Marie, QC
How many inspectors do you think you're going to have to hire in order to do this inspection of every pump once every two years?
President, Measurement Canada, Department of Industry
In terms of Measurement Canada, we have looked at a total cost of implementing Bill C-14, if it were passed, to be about $3.7 million, but Measurement Canada plans to reallocate about $1.7 million of that internally within its existing budget and would be seeking an additional $2 million.
We would propose to hire approximately 18 more inspectors, but these inspectors' role would not strictly be involved in inspection. We would be providing strong audit oversight role of the recognized technicians. We would expect the number of recognized technicians could go up significantly if and when the new legislation is made into law.
It's difficult to really determine just how much growth there would be. Again, it would depend on whether the companies would decide to use their technicians full-time doing inspections, or whether they would use them part-time to do inspections and part-time to do other types of work.
Liberal
Marc Garneau Liberal Westmount—Ville-Marie, QC
My very quick math is that if you're doing about 16% of the pumps every year, you're doing about twice that every two years, which would be about 32%, which would mean you'd need three times more inspectors to do the pumps every two years.
President, Measurement Canada, Department of Industry
In doing our analysis, we had anticipated that if Measurement Canada were to attempt to do all these inspections, we would need probably an additional 300 inspectors.
Liberal
Marc Garneau Liberal Westmount—Ville-Marie, QC
So who's going to pay the non-Measurement Canada inspectors?
President, Measurement Canada, Department of Industry
The device owners would be responsible for engaging the recognized technicians, the companies, and they would pay the fees to them. Bear in mind that a number of these companies already have maintenance contracts, arrangements with some of these companies, so while the individual is there doing some repair work or maintenance work, they could do the certification at the same time. We think this is more efficient than having them do that and then having a Measurement Canada inspector come in and inspect the pump at a later date or at a different time.
Liberal
Marc Garneau Liberal Westmount—Ville-Marie, QC
Do we have any idea how much the device owners are going to have to pay every two years for the inspections?
President, Measurement Canada, Department of Industry
We've estimated between $50 and $200, depending on the type of device, the location of the device, and things like that.
Liberal
Marc Garneau Liberal Westmount—Ville-Marie, QC
Okay. So if you have five or six pumps, it's five or six times more.
Liberal
Marc Garneau Liberal Westmount—Ville-Marie, QC
Okay.
Am I right in saying that when there was an analysis done of the state of pumps in the country, 94% were within the established tolerances, 6% were out, one-third of those giving too much gas and two-thirds giving not enough gas?
Liberal
President, Measurement Canada, Department of Industry
This assessment was made over a number of years. We look at compliance rates on an annual basis. So over a number of years, the pump compliance rates have varied from 90% to 94% to 89%. But the 94% was as a result of the information that was looked at over a number of years in 2008.
Liberal
Marc Garneau Liberal Westmount—Ville-Marie, QC
And how would you describe the 4% that are not giving enough? Would you describe that number as being outrageously against the consumer? What words would you use to describe that state of affairs?