Thanks, Mr. Chair.
I want to go to the challenge you see with the rest of the aviation industry in achieving SMS. Of course, the government has delayed the implementation of these systems for the small carriers. As a person who travels in many remote locations with small carriers, I have great concerns about this as well.
I've talked to a variety of aviation businesses, and they tell me the problems they have with training people to be their SMS managers. With very limited resources, many times they train these people and then they move on. So the continuity of SMS as a culture is very important to the whole idea of SMS, and yet really, with these small operators, I don't know how that culture's going to be maintained in the present aviation industry in Canada. In the small carriers industry in remote locations people are moving constantly; transient employees are the mode, not the exception. I think this is a real issue.
You've certainly said that you're going to pay special attention to this and that you've dealt with aviation safety issues in the small carriers. What do you think about this? What do you think about how we're going to implement SMS with these small carriers? Whether we delay it for 18 months or not, are we going to get what we want in 18 months?