Evidence of meeting #39 for Transport, Infrastructure and Communities in the 39th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was transport.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Conservative
Brian Jean Conservative Fort McMurray—Athabasca, AB
Okay.
In your paper and your presentation you stated that you think the concept of a safety management system could be very good.
As an Individual
Oh, it's a wonderful system if you get it working properly, but with oversight.
Conservative
Brian Jean Conservative Fort McMurray—Athabasca, AB
Absolutely.
My first question is whether in your opinion the incident at Dryden would have happened if a good safety management system had been in place at that time with the same regulatory oversight that exists today.
Conservative
As an Individual
No, no. I thought you meant it wouldn't have taken place. In my opinion, if you had that in place it would not have occurred.
Conservative
Brian Jean Conservative Fort McMurray—Athabasca, AB
So if we had had the safety management system we're proposing today plus the existing regulatory oversight, the incident at Dryden would not have taken place.
Conservative
Brian Jean Conservative Fort McMurray—Athabasca, AB
Okay. My next question is how an inspector would have stopped the accident at Dryden.
As an Individual
Well, if they had done an audit they could have found a myriad of failures within the Air Ontario organization--their operations, their maintenance, pilot training, you name it. It was an accident waiting to happen.
Conservative
Brian Jean Conservative Fort McMurray—Athabasca, AB
Okay, but the particular accident itself was a de-icing problem. They didn't de-ice and as a result the accident took place. In essence what you're saying is that at the time the airline itself should have been identified as having some concerns, the safety management system would have shown those concerns, and something would have been done by Transport Canada.
As an Individual
I don't know. The safety management system would have disclosed the concerns, but if you had regulatory oversight, you certainly would have found out those concerns when they did a proper audit of the operation.
Conservative
Brian Jean Conservative Fort McMurray—Athabasca, AB
Do you have any information that they're going to eliminate the regulatory oversight?
As an Individual
They've already cancelled the national audit program, which is a major part of the oversight program.
Conservative
Brian Jean Conservative Fort McMurray—Athabasca, AB
Would you suggest that if we had a declaration in Bill C-6 that Transport Canada continue with its regulatory oversight it would be sufficient?
As an Individual
In fact, I think it would comply with the international standards.
Conservative
Brian Jean Conservative Fort McMurray—Athabasca, AB
And indeed it would eliminate all the anticipated problems we have heard from the other groups as well.
Conservative
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Merv Tweed
With the time limitations we have, I think I'm going to allow one more question from each party.
Mr. Volpe.
Liberal
Joe Volpe Liberal Eglinton—Lawrence, ON
I want to follow up on the question by the parliamentary secretary, which, if I heard correctly, was that if there is a statement that says we're not going to eliminate the regulatory oversight, it would be sufficient for you.
I am just wondering about the quickness with which you answered that question. I'm not sure what the parliamentary secretary had in mind, but he probably had in mind that this statement would bind the government to the fiscal allocations required to ensure that the regulatory oversight be appropriately financed in order to be effective. Is that what you understood as well?