Evidence of meeting #10 for Transport, Infrastructure and Communities in the 40th Parliament, 3rd session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was catsa.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Ron McAdam General Manager, New Technology, Canadian Air Transport Security Authority
Good morning. My name is Ron McAdam. It's a pleasure to be with you here this morning.
If I can give you a little bit of a sense of what my job is within CATSA, it might illuminate how we look at technologies by their very nature and how new technologies are brought into to our business, into the--
Liberal
Joe Volpe Liberal Eglinton—Lawrence, ON
Mr. McAdam, I don't want to be rude--and you'll excuse me if I appear that way--but I had opportunities to go and see some of these things in situ myself, so I am familiar with them. I just want to know whether you actually went in situ or whether you did the evaluation in a contained environment here in Ottawa.
General Manager, New Technology, Canadian Air Transport Security Authority
Okay.
To answer your question, though, I will refer to a whole notion of what the imaging technology is, because some of this is misunderstood to a point. There are three types of technologies. One is active--
Liberal
Joe Volpe Liberal Eglinton—Lawrence, ON
No. The three types of technologies are the ones that you buy, the ones you think about buying, and the ones that people want you to buy. They all produce a particular result which you have determined you want.
I'm familiar with the process. I just want to know whether you actually went on site or had people lobbying you to pick a particular product.
General Manager, New Technology, Canadian Air Transport Security Authority
No. We look at all the different technologies. We understand the technologies very near in and further out--
General Manager, New Technology, Canadian Air Transport Security Authority
We looked at the technologies that would fit in the Canadian model of screening. So the x-ray backscatter--
President and Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Air Transport Security Authority
This was the best one on the market available at that time. We did review other ones--
Liberal
Joe Volpe Liberal Eglinton—Lawrence, ON
But you'd been testing this for, I think Mr. McGarr said, a couple of years?
President and Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Air Transport Security Authority
Since 2008.
Liberal
Joe Volpe Liberal Eglinton—Lawrence, ON
So from 2008 until 2009, which is only a year or a year and a half, you'd made a decision that L-3 was the only company that could meet the strictest standards available in Canada.
I'm assuming—and I always assume the very best about everybody—that we have the safest environment for air travellers. We can't talk about “whether this” or “whether that”, but if somebody comes here, he or she can be assured that it's a secure travelling environment.
So again, L-3 is the only company that can provide you with the highest standards of screening?
President and Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Air Transport Security Authority
L-3 was the only company that could provide us with the standard of screening that we had requested.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Air Transport Security Authority
None did at that time, sir.
Conservative
Mario Laframboise Bloc Argenteuil—Papineau—Mirabel, QC
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you for appearing before our committee, Mr. McGarr.
Personally, Mr. McGarr, I cannot congratulate CATSA. Allow me to explain. One of your major responsibilities is preboarding. In December, there was one incident in the United States, after which there were endless delays as passengers waited to be screened. It is your responsibility to anticipate these kinds of situations. It is obvious that, if terrorists wanted to disrupt air travel, they would do so during peak periods, that is, during the Christmas break or other holidays. But you were not ready.
You are asking for additional funding, which is all very well and good, but the fact remains that your obligation is to provide the service, and to ensure that passengers do not have to wait endlessly in line before boarding their plane. That is your responsibility. You hire subcontractors. In the contracts you have with them, are there any provisions dealing with extraordinary situations, when extra staff have to be hired, and when you have to ensure that passengers receive adequate service and can board their flights in a reasonable time? The fact that organizations such as yours take an enormous amount of time to provide service to passengers when there is one glitch is the thing that is killing the air travel industry. As a result, it is inevitable that people will criticize Canada's airline system.
So are you ready to deal with these types of situations?
President and Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Air Transport Security Authority
Yes, sir. We are more ready now than we ever were.
We experienced a situation which required a lot of additional work. New security measures had to be put in place. We had to ask for help from the police and the Canada Customs and Revenue Services Agency. Those organizations gave us a remarkable degree of support. We also were able to meet the security requirements of the additional measures.
However, I agree that we had to deal with several challenges in meeting those requirements. This did not happen without bumps in the road. It was during the holidays, when a great many people were traveling, and at a time when many of our agents were deployed in British Columbia for the Olympic Games. Nevertheless, we met those requirements and protected the safety of all passengers traveling in Canada.
Bloc
Mario Laframboise Bloc Argenteuil—Papineau—Mirabel, QC
Nevertheless, Mr. McGarr, passengers were not happy. The people who were caught up in the chaos were not happy.
The problem I have is that you are asking us for additional money. The government has decided to increase fees for passengers. Please correct me if I'm wrong and put my mind at ease, but my impression is that we will invest even more money, that there will be more bumps in the road, and that passengers will face huge delays again.
All the fuss, Mr. McGarr, is because you are asking for more money and because you are in a reactive mode. Earlier, you said that you wanted to be proactive, and that you were proactive. But that's not true. You are reactive, as you were in December. You are asking for money. The government's response is to increase fees. I am not convinced that passengers will be satisfied if something else happens. That's the problem.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Air Transport Security Authority
If there is another incident like the one that happened at Christmas, we will certainly face new challenges. However, we will be in a better position to deal with the situation. We have learned...
Bloc
Mario Laframboise Bloc Argenteuil—Papineau—Mirabel, QC
Your job is to prevent these things from happening, and not to react to them. Your job is to anticipate these kinds of situations.
You are telling me that you are better prepared to deal with a situation like the one that occurred in December. But when there is another incident, you will be unprepared, and you will ask us for more money to solve your problems.
This is why we are in a difficult situation. Your job is to prevent these things from happening.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Air Transport Security Authority
We have accepted that challenge. I assure you that I feel that we are looking at all kinds of possibilities.
I would like to draw your attention to the measures we had to put in place. Unfortunately, this required an enormous amount of time. We were required to physically search every person and to search everything each passenger carried with them. Of course, these searches had to be done properly and, unfortunately, that took a lot of time. Our priority was to do it properly.
We had other challenges, such as the physical space available to us and the number of available agents. This is why, since the incident, we have had to prepare for situations like that.
Bloc
Mario Laframboise Bloc Argenteuil—Papineau—Mirabel, QC
That is what I was saying at the beginning, Mr. McGarr.
The problem is that you are dealing with private agencies and that you do not have enough staff. You yourself said that the problem is due to the lack of available agents. It is your job to conduct these searches. If something else happens, you need more people. You have to be able to call on additional resources, but you were not able to do so. I am not sure that you are going to be ready if a similar situation happens. So that's my problem. You are stuck with contracts with private agencies. These contracts were probably poorly negotiated, since you were not able to deal with that type of situation. And that's what all the fuss is about, Mr. McGarr.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Air Transport Security Authority
I don't think there's a problem with the current contracts. We believe we have struck the right balance between the resources we will need to face new challenges and the resources we want to keep with our contractors. We need qualified, trained, certified and designated resources. We also believe we have struck the right balance concerning the resources we need, given the type of environment we must operate in.
