You do use the verb “fail”, so certain aspects of the implementation of SMS, in your words, have failed.
I'll come back to the question we've wrestled with as a transport committee. A number of people came forward and testified on behalf of SMS in the airline industry, but they fell into two groups. The theoretical individuals said in theory SMS will make the airline system safer, and then the practical witnesses came forward and said SMS simply will not work.
I know my Conservative colleagues disagree, but the reality is that very notable witnesses--as Mr. Fast well knows--criticized the SMS approach.
Of course, if the Conservatives were that interested in bringing it forward, they wouldn't have pulled Bill C-7.
That being said, I'd like to come back to two of the practical aspects. Do you believe the cutbacks in Transport Canada, the reduction in resources you very clearly identify in your report, are part of the reason we have not seen...? Whether you call it failure or not as effective as you would like, the cutbacks in resources in Transport Canada have made a difference to that increase in the accident rate and the problems with the implementation of SMS.