Transport Committee on Feb. 26th, 2007

[Jim Facette]

We practise both safety and security at airports. I gave the example of an incident in the taxi area of the runway where perhaps the lighting or the markings need to be changed a bit, and both the pilot and the people on the ground, the airport authority personnel, see that some changes are necessary. That takes some time, so when the airplane touches down at the airport, the airport authority assumes responsibility for the safety of that aircraft and the people inside it, to make sure they bridge properly and people get off the airplane in a safe way.

Security is certainly another part of all that, but the Aeronautics Act and what we're talking about primarily is safety.

[Massimo Pacetti, Liberal, Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC]

What happens in your relationship with the airlines? Does the airline not take care of making sure its aircraft are safe?

[Jim Facette]

You have to separate the aircraft from the aerodrome, if you will. They are two very separate entities. So the airlines are responsible for the safety and maintenance of their aircraft, but the aerodrome, the facility itself, is where the airport authority takes responsibility.

[Massimo Pacetti, Liberal, Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC]

And those are safety issues.

[Jim Facette]

Yes.

[Massimo Pacetti, Liberal, Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC]

Thank you.

Mr. Barone, in your presentation you spoke about putting safety data in the hands of Transport Canada, and you weren't too happy about that—the fact that there was some confidentiality. Was it just because you didn't want it to be in e-mail, or is there a problem there?

[Sam Barone]

We have a concern about our safety data being transmitted by e-mail, and to that end we welcome additional on-site inspection. On commercial propriety and the data being transmitted, we have concerns that some of that data should be used for safety purposes only, and not for any other purpose in public use.

[Massimo Pacetti, Liberal, Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC]

Where does that information presently go?

[Sam Barone]

It goes to Transport Canada.

[Massimo Pacetti, Liberal, Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC]

So what's the issue there? Where else would it go?

[Sam Barone]

We want it to be consistent with other regulatory frameworks with respect to access to information. Sometimes when there is an incident, if it gets released publicly right away without it having any—We cannot promote a psychology of fear in our business. It's not very appropriate, and many times it may be just a small incident that should be investigated, but it should be within—

[Massimo Pacetti, Liberal, Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC]

Getting back to the other question, if you don't want to interact via e-mail, what do you suggest—old-fashioned letters? It's still a hard copy.

[Sam Barone]

Inspectors would have access to the data as well as other transmission techniques, but we just aren't confident transmitting our data on safety audits and other sensitive information by e-mail.

Les, do you want to elaborate on that and give some specifics?

[Les T. Aalders]

We are encouraging that inspectors come to the air carriers to look at all of the data together, not one snippet of the information in isolation, to review the databases at the air carriers and go through them with the people.

[Massimo Pacetti, Liberal, Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC]

That's not specifically addressed in the bill.

[Les T. Aalders]

No. That's one of the changes we will be proposing.

[Massimo Pacetti, Liberal, Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC]

Thank you.

Mauril.

[Mauril Bélanger, Liberal, Ottawa—Vanier, ON]

What is a low-risk non-air-transport area of the aviation industry? Who is in that category here?

[Fred Jones]

As a starting point for a designated organization, you would need to have a segment of the aviation community that has demonstrated a certain maturity and an outstanding safety record under the existing regulatory regime. They have to be mature enough to incorporate the infrastructure that would allow them to do the oversight of the community for which they have stewardship, or the extra layer of oversight.

In our minds, those are some of the conditions that would exist--and naturally a mature SMS system—before you could consider—

[Mauril Bélanger, Liberal, Ottawa—Vanier, ON]

We're not talking about SMS here; we're talking about low risk. A lot of people have talked about low-risk, non-air-transport areas of the aviation industry.

[Fred Jones]

Low risk, non-air-transport.

[Mauril Bélanger, Liberal, Ottawa—Vanier, ON]

Yes. I'd like to know what that is.

[Fred Jones]

I'm sorry, I can't help you there, sir.

[Mauril Bélanger, Liberal, Ottawa—Vanier, ON]

Mr. Gage, would you—?

[Rich Gage]

I'm not sure what you're referring to. Anything in aviation has risk.