Thank you so much, Mr. Chair.
Good morning, and thank you for inviting me to speak with you today.
My name is Nada Semaan, as the chair mentioned, and I am honoured to be appearing before this committee for the first time as the new president and CEO of CATSA. I'm joined today by my two colleagues, Rhoda Boyd, who is the general manager of communications, and Louise Alberelli, general manager of operations programs.
As you are aware, the Canadian Air Transportation Security Authority is responsible for securing specific elements of the air transportation system. We have four mandated activities: pre-board screening, hold baggage screening, non-passenger screening, and restricted area identity cards. We deliver the mandate of security screening at 89 designated airports across the country through a third party screening contractor model.
Our goal is to provide professional, effective and consistent security screening across the country, combined with a focus on service excellence, and I can assure you that accessibility is a key priority in achieving that goal.
We are pleased that the OAG audit acknowledged the efforts we have already made to identify, remove and prevent transportation barriers for persons with disabilities.
CATSA is proud of the work it's done in this area. We strive to provide a barrier-free security screening experience for those who work at or transit through Canada's designated airports.
Ongoing improvement is always at the forefront of CATSA's efforts. With this in mind, we saw the Office of the Auditor General's audit as an opportunity to look at what additional steps we could take to better meet the needs of those we serve.
We agreed with the recommendations made as a result of the audit, which provided additional measures we can undertake to remove barriers for persons with disabilities.
Specifically, the report highlighted three areas for improvement for CATSA. One is to meet web accessibility standards. The second is the timeliness of accessibility training and further consultations with persons with disabilities related to that training. The final one is to develop and implement a strategy to better analyze complaint data.
In response to the first recommendation, we have taken critical steps towards ensuring our online content meets web accessibility standards. I'm pleased to announce that on March 29, 2023, CATSA updates the online content management system for its website to a new, fully accessible version. We have now turned our attention to the manual work required to update forms, visuals and other aspects of our website, with each step contributing to an incremental improvement level of accessibility as we move forward.
The second recommendation made to CATSA was with regard to the timeliness of accessibility training, and I am pleased to confirm that all screening officers and additional management and decision-makers identified to receive disability awareness training have now done so. Going forward, we have implemented a process to monitor and ensure that all screening officers receive accessibility training prior to starting work with the public, that CATSA management and decision-makers are immediately offered accessibility training upon joining the organization, and that they complete it in a set time.
This second recommendation, on training, also highlighted the importance of consulting persons with disabilities with regard to our teaching methods. CATSA has been consulting persons with disabilities since 2014, with the goal of improving screening processes, operational procedures and training material for screening contractor personnel. However, consulting on teaching methods has posed a challenge with regard to the disclosure of security-sensitive information. That said, while the challenge still exists, we are committed to finding an approach that meets the recommendations given to us while ensuring we also respect the regulatory constraints surrounding the disclosure of this information.
In response to the final recommendation, on improving analysis of CATSA's complaint data, work is under way to develop and implement a strategy in consultation with various teams within CATSA, as well as with persons with disabilities. We will also ensure that the strategy aligns with the federal data measurement strategy for accessibility of 2022-27.
As noted by the Office of the Auditor General, we currently evaluate and process complaints individually. This allows us to review complaints in real time, share information and feedback with our frontline operations team and provide training to determine immediate action.
We agree that we could improve the ways we analyze complaint data. We've already begun work in this area. We're currently exploring how we categorize complaint data as well as which processes we can adopt to support trend analysis and reporting so we can enhance our current real-time approach.
CATSA remains committed to aligning with government priorities and listening to and engaging with passengers, airport workers, screening officers, the CATSA workforce and, in all honesty, all who wish to work with us, to identify, prevent and eliminate accessibility barriers, both current and future.
The actions we are taking today are working toward a more accessible and barrier-free tomorrow.
Thank you again for the opportunity to be here and to present to you today. We will be happy to take questions after.