Evidence of meeting #55 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 sms.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Director, Regulatory Services, Civil Aviation, Department of Transport
You are right.
Bloc
Mario Laframboise Bloc Argenteuil—Papineau—Mirabel, QC
All right.
(Amendment agreed to [See Minutes of Proceedings])
Bloc
Mario Laframboise Bloc Argenteuil—Papineau—Mirabel, QC
Mr. Chairman, with your permission, I do not want us to forget the amendment of section 49(2) that is on the same page. Perhaps we could add it on page 63 or 64 and add it for upcoming meetings. It is a good government amendment, and I do not want us to forget it.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Merv Tweed
I'm really wishful that we'll be at that point today, Monsieur Laframboise.
We're on amendment G-2.1, which is on page 42.1.
Monsieur Bélanger.
Liberal
Mauril Bélanger Liberal Ottawa—Vanier, ON
We've now concluded, except for this new subclause 49(2), everything dealing with designated organizations?
Okay. So we're now going into SMS, right, on page 42.1?
Conservative
Brian Jean Conservative Fort McMurray—Athabasca, AB
Mr. Chair, I will move this, as follows:5.3901 The Minister of Transport shall carry out inspections of the aeronautical activities of holders of Canadian aviation document documents who are required to have a management system.
The reason this is put forward as an amendment is quite frankly to deal with some concerns that were brought forward by members in relation to the SMS system in particular and inspections generally. It's very similar, I think, to LIB-6, but a little bit...maybe a little stronger, is what I thought.
Members will notice that I have changed “conduct” to “carry out”, to be consistent with what was mentioned previously by Mr. Reinhardt.
Conservative
Brian Jean Conservative Fort McMurray—Athabasca, AB
No. We'd heard from Mr. Reinhardt just a few minutes ago that we needed to have “carry out” instead of “conduct”, to be consistent with the language found throughout the text. So I amended that when I read it out.
Conservative
Conservative
Brian Jean Conservative Fort McMurray—Athabasca, AB
Yes. I would ask for a friendly amendment.
This is based upon what the officials said.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Merv Tweed
Okay. A friendly amendment has been suggested to change “shall conduct” to “shall carry out”.
Liberal
Liberal
Mauril Bélanger Liberal Ottawa—Vanier, ON
Well, if it's in English, it should be “the Minister shall inspect”.
Liberal
Liberal
Conservative
Bloc
Mario Laframboise Bloc Argenteuil—Papineau—Mirabel, QC
It means striking out line 36 on page 14 up to line 25, page 15. Thus, you want to strike out section 5.392 on confidentiality, simply for the sake of respecting the Access to Information Act. The most important thing is that all the information regarding safety management be accessible so that we can know what is happening if a company has a problem or anything like that.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Merv Tweed
And for the information of the committee, there is line conflict with NDP-8.3 and NDP-9, and if this amendment is adopted, BQ-16, NDP-8.3, NDP-9, and G-3 cannot be put.
Mr. Jean.
Conservative
Brian Jean Conservative Fort McMurray—Athabasca, AB
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
The government in this case definitely would prefer G-3, as obviously it's our amendment, and we would suggest it deals with whistle-blowers in a better context, if that's what indeed the member is concerned with. But I would invite him to take a look at proposed subsection (3) in G-3 just very briefly to see whether that's more consistent with what he's interested in.
My understanding from talks with the department is that this, in essence, destroys the ability of SMS to work, and G-3 would allow SMS to continue working but still allow whistle-blowers. We were listening when it was brought forward by both the NDP and the Bloc and one member of the Liberal party who suggested it, and indeed, currently we already have non-punitive reporting methods under that. So we have four options for whistle-blowers, and we would suggest that G-3 would certainly deal with all the issues that have been put forward by the Bloc amendment of BQ-16 and on NDP-8.3 and still allow SMS to continue working as it's designed to do.
