Transport Committee on March 8th, 2011

[Kristine Burr]

Mr. Chair, if I may respond to the first question, I believe the question was whether we could guarantee that the jobs located in the three operation and maintenance centres in Montreal, Mississauga, and Winnipeg will be protected.

I would like to confirm that the Air Canada Public Participation Act specifically requires Air Canada, through its articles of continuance, to actually uphold its maintenance facilities in these three cities. So I think we're confident, based on Air Canada's assurances, that they will indeed do what the member has asked.

[Roger Gaudet, Bloc, Montcalm, QC]

I have more confidence in the government than in Air Canada. I am being candid. I myself am part of the government, so I include myself in that statement. Air Canada and Aveos shareholders are only thinking of one thing.

Quite honestly, I am not really satisfied with your answer. In my opinion, Air Canada and Aveos are in no way accountable to us. Though the minister has said it is an issue of privatization and that they may come to an arrangement in two years' time, we will be the ones on our own in two years' time.

[Kristine Burr]

Mr. Chair, if I may respond, one of the obligations of the air policy team at Transport Canada is to assess the competitiveness of the air sector, and Canada actually has a very good track record in these professions, in these areas. As the minister said earlier, we're confident that there is a competitive advantage to the excellent skills that are found in the repair and maintenance fields in the aviation sector in Canada, and we are hopeful that this will continue to be the case.

[Roger Gaudet, Bloc, Montcalm, QC]

I agree with you when you say that we should show some trust. But my dog showed a lot of trust and he died anyway. I am not sure about the principle of trust when business is involved.

In Parliament, we have laws that we respect. However, I am not sure that these companies have made as much progress. We have a lot of problems with Air Canada over the official languages issue. I agree with you that there are laws, but I am not sure whether the company is complying with them, and I wonder if this is not simply their way of telling us to take a hike.

[Kristine Burr]

Our understanding is that the airline is complying with all necessary laws.

The Commissioner of Official Languages is conducting an evaluation right now to satisfy himself that this is indeed the case, and of course we will be watching carefully to see what his findings are. But we are assured by the airline that they are doing everything they can to meet all the necessary requirements.

[Roger Gaudet, Bloc, Montcalm, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Conservative, Merv Tweed]

Mr. Bevington.

[Dennis Bevington, NDP, Western Arctic, NT]

Thanks. I have a question in that same vein.

Does your department have a definition for what you would consider to be an operational facility, a maintenance facility, under the Air Canada Public Participation Act? Do you have a firm definition of what that is, so we can compare it to see whether Air Canada is meeting your expectations for a maintenance centre?

[Kristine Burr]

Not specifically.

[Dennis Bevington, NDP, Western Arctic, NT]

You have no definition of what a maintenance centre is. How do we then determine whether Air Canada is providing a maintenance centre in those locations?

[Kristine Burr]

Mr. Chair, we understand they have maintained services in a number of specific areas: upkeep and maintenance of airlines. Other work is conducted by Aveos at the moment. We are confident there is a going concern activity in all three locations that are identified in the Air Canada Public Participation Act.

[Dennis Bevington, NDP, Western Arctic, NT]

Thank you.

I have a question on aviation safety inspectors. How are we doing with the hiring of new inspectors for our aviation safety program?

[Yaprak Baltacioglu]

We're working on that. As we talked about last year when we appeared in front of you, there are a number of things we are doing. One is the implementation of safety management systems.

We're working closely with the inspectors, and I have created an inspectorate advisory committee, where inspectors give us their view about what their needs are.

I don't have the exact number of the hires, but I'm sure Madame Kinney can give you the numbers. This is an ongoing challenge. We have had some staffing and classification issues recently that have affected all our staffing capacity.

I don't want to take up your time. If you wish, we can send you our hires and the numbers. We do have some challenges.

[Dennis Bevington, NDP, Western Arctic, NT]

So you don't really have a number; you can give that number to the committee later.

[Yaprak Baltacioglu]

Yes, we might be able to find it soon.

[Dennis Bevington, NDP, Western Arctic, NT]

Okay.

I have a question on the north. We've had a proposal in for the Northlands sewer reconstruction project in Yellowknife for about nine months. We're getting to a point where 250 homes may have to be shut down because of the catastrophic nature of the sewer and water system there this winter.

We've been waiting for a response on this particular project so the City of Yellowknife can do its planning to get this fixed up within the next operational year. We've been waiting on this. We've been writing letters. We want to have an answer.

Can we expect an answer very soon?

[John Forster]

To be honest, I'm not familiar with the specifics. As you know, in the north our Building Canada money flows through an agreement with the territories whereby they propose projects to us. But I'm happy to--

[Dennis Bevington, NDP, Western Arctic, NT]

We're waiting for you to say whether this project is acceptable.

[Yaprak Baltacioglu]

Yes.

[John Forster]

I'm happy to look into it and get back to you. I'm not familiar with it.

[Dennis Bevington, NDP, Western Arctic, NT]

Okay. Thank you very much.

With regard to rail service, when do we expect to see the rail service review released?

[Yaprak Baltacioglu]

We have received the report and the ministers are considering it. Once appropriate cabinet discussions happen around that, it will be released.

[Dennis Bevington, NDP, Western Arctic, NT]

Okay.

With regard to the council of Canadian ministers who are looking at the electronic driving controls for the trucking industry, what's the status of that review? It has been under way for some time, I believe.

[Yaprak Baltacioglu]

We're working at the ministers' level as well as the officials' level. We have been working with our provincial counterparts, definitely. Electronic onboard recorders are a good means to safety. I think the issue is how do we implement it? How can they be implemented? Where are the costs? The work is ongoing.

[Dennis Bevington, NDP, Western Arctic, NT]

So that review is going to be complete very shortly?