Natural Resources Committee on Dec. 2nd, 2013

[Stuart Pinks]

No.

In our context, as I stated in my opening statement, our board has put together a health, safety and environment committee of the board, which focuses on safety and makes sure that safety is paramount in the organization and in all our decision-making. I would see this advisory council helping advise them in their governance oversight of our safety function within the organization.

The other thing this advisory council can do in providing advice to ministers is that ministers can jointly—and because it's federal-provincial, it has to be joint—provide directives to the board or boards to develop guidelines or interpretation notes, or to implement recommendations that might have come out of an audit. I would see that as another function of the advisory committee. If they don't see the board reacting the way they had envisioned or felt appropriate, they can go to the ministers and suggest that the ministers take appropriate directive powers.

[Kelly Block, Conservative, Saskatoon—Rosetown—Biggar, SK]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Leon Benoit]

Would anyone else like to finish the minute on this side? No. Then we'll go to Mr. Julian and possibly, Mr. Gravelle, if some time is left.

[Peter Julian, NDP, Burnaby—New Westminster, BC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I'll be splitting the time again with Ms. Duncan, and we'd like to thank our Conservative colleagues for the gift of the minute. That's very kind of them in the spirit of Christmas.

I'd like to come back, Mr. Tessier and Mr. Pinks, to the issue of the Transportation Safety Board proposed regulation, which would oblige a 30-minute run-dry capability. I wasn't sure whether what you were saying was that for the offshore boards this wasn't an important issue or whether you were saying here's how the federal government justifies not putting in place what the Transportation Safety Board has very clearly said needs to be put in place to meet health and safety requirements.

I would like to understand whether what you're saying is that the boards themselves are saying it's not an important element or needs to be taken into consideration with other things, or whether you're responding to where you think the federal government is coming from on this.

[Scott Tessier]

I don't think I was exactly saying any of those things.

[Peter Julian, NDP, Burnaby—New Westminster, BC]

That's fair enough.

[Scott Tessier]

I pick none of the above. Just to clarify, not Transportation Safety Board regulations, Transport Canada regulations.

[Peter Julian, NDP, Burnaby—New Westminster, BC]

Transportation Safety Board recommendations.

[Scott Tessier]

So the Transport Canada regulations flow from those regulations. That's right.

Again with respect to 30-minute run-dry in particular?

[Peter Julian, NDP, Burnaby—New Westminster, BC]

Yes.

[Scott Tessier]

To reiterate, the advice from our aviation advisers is to proceed cautiously down this road, because only a couple of different helicopters are equipped to operate in our offshore. Not all have 30-minute run-dry capability. Thirty-minute run-dry capability is a bit of a misnomer. One of the helicopters has an emergency glycol system that can provide a backup in the case of a failure.

There are pros and cons to each type of helicopter and the advice is that we shouldn't try to pick one based solely on 30-minute run-dry capability. A host of other factors need to be weighed into the evaluation of a helicopter to service our offshore.

[Peter Julian, NDP, Burnaby—New Westminster, BC]

Is the concern cost? I still don't understand why that would not be when the Transportation Safety Board clearly recommends that be put in place. Why would there be opposition? The only element I could imagine would be that costs might be involved in ensuring that every helicopter does have that 30-minute run-dry capability.

[Scott Tessier]

Yes, it's a question probably better put to Transport Canada officials, but the advice is that there's no perfect helicopter. If you're going to mandate 30-minute run-dry capability, you run the risk of hand-picking a helicopter that again isn't perfect for our offshore environment.

[Peter Julian, NDP, Burnaby—New Westminster, BC]

Okay, but the problem here was that it wasn't enforced, as you recall.

I know you're well aware of the Cougar tragedy, but there the helicopter involved was supposed to have the 30-minute run-dry capability. It was exempted by Transport Canada. The pilots thought they had run-dry capability, and after 10 minutes, tragically, 17 people died.

I'm still struggling to understand whether this is the perspective of the board or whether there's a concern around costs. I don't understand why the recommendation wouldn't be enforced. That's on the Transport Canada side. For the boards themselves, I would just assume the safety boards would be saying, “Yes, we need to make sure that we have this 30-minute run-dry capability because that is a requirement for health and safety.”

[Scott Tessier]

Yes, we obviously have a keen interest in the safety of passengers and workers in our offshore. Again, you can't look at 30-minute run-dry capability as a sole criteria in evaluating the safety of a helicopter.

[Peter Julian, NDP, Burnaby—New Westminster, BC]

But you're not opposed to having it, or are you?

[Scott Tessier]

I think it's one factor in a series which you'd use to evaluate the capability of offshore helicopters.

[Peter Julian, NDP, Burnaby—New Westminster, BC]

Okay.

I'll turn things over to Ms. Duncan, but I do think that makes the case for an independent safety regulator, because an independent safety regulator would be able to put aside issues of cost and say that this is what's needed for health and safety in the offshore.

[Scott Tessier]

An independent safety regulator would not...[Inaudible—Editor]...conclusion that I just outlined.

[Peter Julian, NDP, Burnaby—New Westminster, BC]

I'm not sure you could say that.

[Linda Duncan, NDP, Edmonton Strathcona, AB]

Are you giving it to me, or are you not giving it to me?

[Peter Julian, NDP, Burnaby—New Westminster, BC]

To Linda—

[The Chair, Conservative, Leon Benoit]

On a point of order, Mr. Regan.

[Geoff Regan, Liberal, Halifax West, NS]

Mr. Chair, on a point of order, he should probably say it again because his microphone wasn't on until the very end of his statement. For translation, that's important.

[The Chair, Conservative, Leon Benoit]

Perhaps you could just repeat the last part of your answer.