Evidence of meeting #47 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 transport.
A recording is available from Parliament.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Air Transport Security Authority
Oh, absolutely, issues like that will be considered in the development of the program.
NDP
Dennis Bevington NDP Western Arctic, NT
We talk about international standards. When you're flying on an Air Canada plane from Toronto to New York and then from New York back to Toronto, in the past there would have been two standards for what could come on that plane, one going to the United States and one coming back.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Air Transport Security Authority
Yes.
NDP
Dennis Bevington NDP Western Arctic, NT
You had a particular issue with that. Did you consider it to be a useful procedure to have the same flight crew having to deal with different standards related to where they're flying to and where they're coming from?
President and Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Air Transport Security Authority
It was a situation that I believe complicated the travel process for a number of passengers, absolutely.
NDP
Dennis Bevington NDP Western Arctic, NT
Concerning the NEXUS cards, we had testimony from the Israelis that up to 50% of their passengers have pre-security clearance cards. The NEXUS cards seem very difficult to obtain. Are you looking at setting up a procedure to open up the availability of NEXUS cards in a better fashion to Canadian travellers?
President and Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Air Transport Security Authority
The NEXUS program is administered by the Canada Border Services Agency with the American border services group also, so admission is 100% an issue for Canada Border Services Agency.
NDP
Dennis Bevington NDP Western Arctic, NT
So you haven't considered setting up a separate program or a separate sequence for NEXUS cards for air travellers?
President and Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Air Transport Security Authority
For the moment, we have not, no.
NDP
Dennis Bevington NDP Western Arctic, NT
Is that something that would be a possibility in the future?
President and Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Air Transport Security Authority
I would hope we would fully leverage the existing capability of the NEXUS program run by CBSA, but it is something that could be considered in the future.
NDP
Dennis Bevington NDP Western Arctic, NT
Certainly there's a different level of security for crossing a border in a vehicle from that for entering onto an airplane to cross a border. Within Canada, we've already seen that the U.S. has given an exemption in terms of what they consider security for domestic-to-domestic flights in Canada; they don't consider them a higher level of security. Why would we then only have air security clearance cards that meet this cross-border standard, when we're trying to reduce the amount of work we have to do on security and take people out of the system? Why wouldn't we be looking at air security cards for internal use in Canada?
President and Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Air Transport Security Authority
For the moment, what we are trying to do is leverage the security value of the background checks that are conducted by both the Canada Border Services Agency and the U.S. Customs and Border Protection organization. That is the security value that we are trying to integrate into the screening process.
NDP
Dennis Bevington NDP Western Arctic, NT
But surely there are lots of travellers in Canada who don't go across to the United States and who don't need to have their security clearance through the United States. The U.S. has agreed, on the overflight issue, to give an exemption for domestic-to-domestic flights, so obviously they don't consider those to be at the same high level of security as the international flights are. Why can't we see a system that recognizes that within Canada?
February 15th, 2011 / 11:30 a.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Air Transport Security Authority
As I said, what we are trying to do is recognize the security value of the background checks that have been undertaken by these other agencies so that we can promote a “trusted traveller” line for domestic flights within Canada. Whether there will be opportunities to expand that in the future is something we will remain open to.
Conservative
Colin Mayes Conservative Okanagan—Shuswap, BC
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, gentlemen, for being here today.
I applaud the changes in policies or procedures that are going to make the security checks, I hope, more efficient and effective on the ground. One thing, though, is that while regulations are good, it's really a question of making sure that those who administer the regulations understand them and are apprised of them and have the ability to use a little bit of common sense on the floor.
In my experience—of course, all MPs do a lot of flying—it has been very interesting to see different levels of security, whether it's that at one airport you have to take off your shoes and at another.... They always stop my wife and ask her about the tweezers in her beauty kit. She'll say that it's online—“I checked online”—and they will go and check with the supervisor and say oh yes, it's online. These types of things are all about implementation and educating those people on the front line.
What is going to happen with trying to ensure that these new policies and procedures are going to be well understood by those administering them, and that we're going to see some consistency across all the airports in Canada?
President and Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Air Transport Security Authority
Subsequent to the announcement by the minister, we have developed a very thorough rollout implementation plan for these new measures. There are bulletins being sent to screening officers; we are using shift briefings to promote consistency across a region; we are meeting with screening officers in town hall groups in a town hall type of environment to try to ensure that they understand very well what we are trying to achieve by this. We have also developed a new training module that focuses on these changes.
We believe that the message not only about what has to be done but also why we are doing it and how it should be done will be well received by screening officers. This is a process that is ongoing right now.
Conservative
Colin Mayes Conservative Okanagan—Shuswap, BC
Just out of curiosity, do you have any input into oversight as far as criteria for hiring are concerned? For instance, we talk about behavioural identification. Sometimes when you're hiring people, you should make sure that you have people who are conducive to what they call “customer service”. Do you have any influence on that at all? Is anything like that made known to those who are providing the service?
President and Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Air Transport Security Authority
With respect to the behaviour observation program, it is one of the priorities of the program. For the moment, for the purpose of the pilot project we are conducting, we are using CATSA training officers and CATSA oversight officers to conduct the pilot project. We are developing the competency grid we will use to eventually hire officers for this, if the program becomes a reality.
So it will be first in our thoughts in recruiting the right people for this. We understand and agree that it is critical to the success of the program.
Conservative
Colin Mayes Conservative Okanagan—Shuswap, BC
Just to follow up on what I see as your organization and your job, it's not only to ensure that the policies are carried out that are directed by the minister and the Government of Canada, but also to look at those operations and have some oversight and say “Hey, this is not working”, and make recommendations. Do you do that on a consistent basis?
President and Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Air Transport Security Authority
Yes, we do.
Conservative
Colin Mayes Conservative Okanagan—Shuswap, BC
And getting back to what Mr. Bevington said, I really agree with what he has said. Have you made a recommendation to the department with regard to travel security cards, that people be pre-approved? People like Canadian Forces personnel, stewardesses, and the pilots of airplanes, why should they have to go through the same security check that the average passenger does? Have you made any recommendations with regard to that?
President and Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Air Transport Security Authority
We are working with Transport Canada currently. As I said in my opening remarks, I believe we're actually working very well with them, also, to move forward on initiatives that could enhance aviation security in Canada.
One of the issues with respect to expanding the admissibility to the trusted traveller lane is that there are approximately 125,000 airline industry workers who have undergone transportation security clearances, and we feel this is an opportunity. This is an issue we are looking at with Transport Canada, whether we can admit people who have received transportation security clearances also to this trusted traveller lane.
So the short answer to your question is yes, we are looking at opportunities to expand the program with the regulator currently.
Conservative
Colin Mayes Conservative Okanagan—Shuswap, BC
As to the harmonization of various articles that can be carried on an airplane, that are allowable, it's almost a tiered thing. You can't say we're going to harmonize as the other countries do, but they might have other tiers that sort of are a safety check against some of those materials. So the structure of what you've done, have you basically blended that, so the model is similar to those of our international partners we're harmonizing to?
