Thank you, Madam Chair and honourable members. On behalf of the Canadian Air Traffic Control Association, we truly appreciate the invitation and opportunity to appear before your committee this morning.
CATCA is a Unifor local trade union representing now less than 1,800 air traffic controllers in Canada. Our number one mission is aviation safety and ensuring responsible working conditions for our members.
Before the pandemic hit, our members were responsible for the safety of three million flights flights per year and more than 162 million passengers who arrived, departed and overflew Canada.
This morning I want to bring to the committee's attention some significant information and very alarming statistics regarding the safety and economic recovery for the industry.
Pre-pandemic, we were short-staffed by 13%. Last year, through early retirement incentives, Nav Canada shed 94 more air traffic controllers. Today we are 18% short-staffed to our pre-pandemic numbers. To make things even worse, an additional 104 controllers have received either surplus letters or letters of vulnerability, which, if executed, will leave us more than 20% short-staffed based on pre-pandemic numbers.
In 2019 the transport minister recognized that safety was being compromised and ordered Nav Canada to overhaul its fatigue risk management system, mainly due to short-staffing and staffing policies that included almost $100 million in overtime. On September 22 of last year, Nav Canada terminated 170 air traffic controller trainees. Today we have a handful in our system—a system that takes up to, and sometimes more than, two years to train an air traffic controller at a significant cost.
We understand that Nav Canada has seen a swift drop in revenue due to the pandemic and it needs to find efficiencies. However, this cannot come at the cost of safety for the air transportation industry. As you may have seen in the media earlier today, our union and our members have raised critical concerns over air navigation safety. We commissioned a survey of our members, and 1,400 of the almost 1,800 air navigation safety experts responded. That's an astounding 78%.
Just over 40% of controllers said the looming cuts pose a high risk to public safety, while an additional 40% indicated there would be a moderate safety risk if the cuts go ahead. Notably, only 2% of those surveyed said there is no safety risk. Before the decline in air traffic as a result of the pandemic, more than 71% were concerned or very concerned about staffing, fatigue and the use of overtime by Nav Canada. A full 92% of air traffic controllers surveyed said that Nav Canada's workforce adjustments, including layoff notices, have resulted in increased stress levels—this to one of the already most stressful jobs in the world. Finally, only little more than 6% of those surveyed said they trust Nav Canada management to put public safety first when making decisions about closures and cuts, while more than 83% of controllers said they do not trust management to put public safety first. This is simply staggering. It is a clear warning that there is serious problem.
I've provided you with staffing numbers and painted quite a bleak picture when it comes to safety. We have not discussed recovery. Decisions to reduce staffing in a system that was already understaffed will have an impact on service delivery as well, which will also have an impact on the economic recovery. Reducing staff numbers and control centres and closing towers will necessarily create significant delays for airlines and other customers by creating bottlenecks in the navigation system. The company is weakening the ability of the system to respond to demand, even at present levels. By laying off nearly all the trainees, the company has also damaged the ability of the navigation system to provide service in the future, as there are no additional people to meet the rising traffic demands during recovery and no replacement for current controllers who will retire.
Delayed service, restrictions and lost capacity will have a direct negative impact on the overall economic recovery, given the central role that air transportation and the aerospace industry play in Canada for both passengers and cargo. Nav Canada is making decisions that will seriously impair the delivery of service for years to come in response to short-term financial pressures.
While Nav Canada is technically a private entity, it's in a unique position in that they are the only civil air navigation service provider in Canada. Their monopoly status allows them to raise fees, utilize government programs and petition the government for additional financial support to ultimately promote a sector recovery. We're asking this committee for a recommendation to government to provide Nav Canada with whatever financial support is required in the form of a grant to help them weather this temporary downturn.
In addition, a moratorium on layoffs is required. This company cannot afford to lose highly skilled professionals to other service providers around the world that are in high demand. We all need to reassure the travelling public that their safety will not be compromised, and know that we will be there as pent-up travel demand increases.
With fewer air traffic controllers and other industry professionals, any economic recovery will be jeopardized.
Thank you. I would be happy to answer any questions.