Transport Committee on April 15th, 2010

[Captain Jacques Mignault, Member, Safety Subcommittee, National Airlines Council of Canada]

Thank you, honourable members of the committee, for the opportunity to appear today to talk to you about aviation safety and safety management systems.

I am Captain Jacques Mignault and I am here with my colleagues Captain Michel Chiasson and Mr. Bernie Adamache on behalf of the National Airlines Council of Canada, which is an industry association comprised of Canada's four largest passenger airlines: Air Canada, WestJet, Air Transat and Jazz Air.

Together, the member carriers of the NACC directly employ 43,000 Canadians and directly serve 59 Canadian communities. We operate an average of 1,800 flights a day, or 657,000 flights annually.

We carry 130,000 passengers a day, or 46 million annually, on a collective fleet of 437 large transport category aircraft. Most importantly, we conduct this massive undertaking with a very deliberate and unwavering commitment to safety, which is ingrained in everything we do. Nothing is more important to us than delivering our passengers safely to their destination.

The NACC advocates for safe, sustainable and competitive air travel by engaging with government and industry stakeholders to promote the development of policies, regulations and legislation that foster the world-class transportation system essential to our country's prosperity. The NACC's operating committees, of which all three of us are active members, are staffed by volunteer representatives of the four member airlines.

I serve as vice-chair of the NACC's safety subcommittee, whose objective is to maintain and enhance world-class safety standards at NACC member airlines and to collaborate on safety-related airline issues.

I am a captain with Air Transat, and in my day job I am the director of flight safety and operational security. As such, I am responsible for the day-to-day management of the airline's safety management system.

Prior to joining Air Transat in 1998, I served with the Canadian Forces for 24 years as a military officer and pilot. While in the military, I accumulated flying experience in training and transport-type aircraft in addition to assuming a command position as commanding officer of a tactical airlift squadron.

NACC carriers have collectively embraced the principles of safety management systems and embarked on a journey that has brought about a fundamental change in the industry's culture towards safety. Today I can state unequivocally that such a transformation has taken place at all levels within our member airlines; employees, managers, and the highest echelons of the corporation up to the CEO level are engaged. This would certainly not have been possible without the firm commitment and accountability required under the SMS framework.

The development of a safety-focused corporate culture is one of the cornerstones of SMS. This culture makes each employee accountable for playing a role in promoting safe operations through his quality work and in contributing to report risk or undesirable situations.

Among the company's senior executives, it increases awareness of the risks inherent in aircraft operations and of the obligation to mitigate them. There can be no doubt that the Canadian aviation industry as a whole has enjoyed an excellent reputation for looking inside itself in an effort to develop better aircraft designs and better operating practices, all with a goal to significantly reduce the risk of accidents.

To the best of our knowledge, there is no other industry--perhaps with the exception of the nuclear industry--that has demonstrated, as a result of each and every report finding, such a high degree of internal investigation, leading to the implementation of corrective measures.

Over the years, these investigations looked beyond normal design and operating practices and started to focus on human factors. Training in the areas of crew resource management and maintenance was introduced to achieve the desired safety improvement goals.

In this respect, we do not see SMS as something really new, but rather as the necessary evolution of a safety process being extended throughout the entire airline organization. Because of this, we at the NACC fully support Transport Canada in its implementation of SMS.

Global aviation accident statistics from the past five years indicate that the downward trend in the accident rate, which we observed for a significant period, has somewhat flattened. Safety management systems are seen as having the potential of presenting a breakthrough in allowing a further reduction of the annual accident rate by virtue of their key elements.

First, there is a clear notion of accountability, which guarantees a personal commitment towards safety from the airline's chief executive officer.

Second, there is a non-punitive reporting system whereby employees are encouraged to share experiences or concerns about perceived unsafe practices for the betterment of the organization and improved safety.

Third, there is an incident investigation function whose focus is clearly on systemic causal factors rather than aiming exclusively at employees' mistakes.

Fourth, there is an emphasis on proactive activities, such as the systematic monitoring of flight data and the examination of industry-wide safety events for the purpose of determining the airline's risk exposure to similar events.

Finally, the last element is every operational department within the airline taking ownership of its safety record and setting specific safety targets annually as part of the airline's strategic planning exercise.

In the current debate over the introduction of safety management systems, it must be made clear that no one within the aviation industry is advocating that the oversight and continued surveillance functions have become redundant. On the contrary, we believe that certification and oversight surveillance activities rightly fall within Transport Canada's mandate, while the airlines are best positioned to manage safety effectively.

Like any new system, it can be improved. We are of course ready to work with Transport Canada, this committee and other stakeholders to improve SMS.

I would now like to give an opportunity to my colleagues from the other NACC member carriers to briefly introduce themselves.

As you will see, we have brought with us representatives of three of the NACC's operating committees, who are best placed to discuss issues dealing with SMS implementation at Canada's four major airlines.

[Bernie Adamache, Chair, Maintenance and Engineering Subcommittee, National Airlines Council of Canada]

Good morning, everyone. My name is Bernie Adamache and I am representing the NACC's Maintenance and Engineering Subcommittee, which as our name suggests, focuses on all regulations that apply to Canadian aviation maintenance and engineering activities.

I am presently responsible for one of the heavy maintenance bases at Air Canada Jazz. After graduating from trade school in 1978, I held positions in the maintenance departments at Bearskin Airlines and Pratt and Whitney Canada's flight test division.

For the next seven years, I was employed by Transport Canada in various roles. In 1995, I joined Air Canada, where I held various positions, including that of senior director for system line maintenance and, later on, that of director of regulatory compliance for the maintenance division.

[Captain Michel Chiasson, Chair, Flight Operations Subcommittee, National Airlines Council of Canada]

Good morning, everyone. I am Captain Michel Chiasson, and I serve as chair of the NACC's Flight Operations Subcommittee.

I'm the chair of the NACC's flight operations subcommittee. We work with government and industry stakeholders to promote effective regulations and practices with respect to airline operations. We meet regularly with Transport Canada, Nav Canada, and the FAA, as well as industry partners, with the ultimate goal in mind being to improve, to better serve our common constituents, the travelling public.

As a commercial pilot since 1974, I started with Nordair in 1979. Through a series of mergers, I have been with Air Canada for 32 years. I currently fly as a captain.

In the past 10 years, through three secondments, I've been the vice-president of a foreign operator, director of flight operations with Zip, and vice-president of flight operations with Jazz as a designated certificate-holder under the Canadian aviation regulations. In addition to serving as chair of the NACC's flight operations subcommittee, I serve as Air Canada's representative at IATA's flight operations group.

In closing, I'd like to reiterate the NACC's firm commitment to SMS, because we know that aviation safety can only be enhanced through ongoing vigilance. We recognize that, as with any new initiative, the implementation of SMS has posed challenges, which is why we continue to work with Transport Canada, this committee, and our industry partners to overcome these challenges, improve SMS, and ensure continued excellence in aviation safety.

Merci.

[The Chair, Conservative, Merv Tweed]

Mr. Barone.

[Sam Barone, President and Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Business Aviation Association]

Good morning, Mr. Chairman and members of the committee.

I am Sam Barone, president and CEO of the Canadian Business Aviation Association. With me today, Mr. Chairman, are Mr. Ian Epstein, legal counsel, and Mr. Art LaFlamme, special adviser.

I am grateful for this opportunity to appear before you today. The CBAA commends the committee for holding this important hearing to discuss aviation safety and security.

The CBAA is a non-profit organization that was incorporated in 1962 to act as a collective voice for the business aviation community in Canada. The CBAA is constantly working to improve, refine, and ensure that aviation remains a safe, secure, dependable, efficient, and sustainable form of transportation, not only within Canada, but around the world.

By its very nature, business aviation embraces a strong safety culture and is enhanced through ongoing leading-edge technical innovation and a strong commitment to safety management. In Canada the business aviation community has endorsed and uses the concept of SMS to proactively help mitigate aviation risks.

Globally and within Canada, business aviation is a key economic enabler, providing employment to Canadians at many levels, with the result being significant contributions to the local and national economies through aircraft manufacturing, sales, and service, and support, maintenance, repair, and operational activities, all of which contribute positively to our national balance of trade. The use of an aircraft as a business tool has enabled many Canadian firms to establish, manage, and maintain a competitive and productive edge, both in the domestic and the international marketplaces.

Our members are Canada's largest employers. They represent every economic sector in Canada and play a vital role in ensuring that Canada's economic action plan is realized, both in urban centres and in northern and remote communities.

The CBAA is a founding member of the International Business Aviation Council in Montreal, which has been awarded observer status at the General Assembly of the International Civil Aviation Organization, ICAO, a UN agency also in Montreal.

CBAA and its members strongly believe in giving back to the community through work with the air cadets and with Hope Air, a volunteer organization that arranges air transport for Canadians who need medical treatment outside their home community, including family members who wish to travel with the patient.

Today, CBAA speaks for more than 400 companies and organizations in all sectors and operates over 500 aircraft. The CBAA acknowledges Minister of Transport Baird's authority under the Aeronautics Act to take back responsibility for the private operator certificate program. We, of course, are disappointed with the decision, but will work with Transport Canada and the government at all levels, on behalf of our members, to effect as smooth and as safe a transition as possible.

First of all, I wish to dispel two misconceptions: that safety has been lessened under the regulatory authorities given to CBAA in 2005, and that this is a form of self-regulation.

Business aviation has an excellent safety record. In our review of the safety data provided by IBAC over a five-year period from 2005 to 2009, there were only two occurrences involving privately operated business-type jet and turboprop aircraft operating under a POC issued by CBAA. Conversely, there were 43 occurrences involving Canadian commercially operated aircraft in the same category. It is worthy of note that commercial operators in this category are not yet required to have an SMS.

Mr. Chairman, the CBAA views its most important responsibility as advancing business aviation safety and fostering the development of industry safety best practices. As part of its quality assurance program, CBAA is committed to continuous improvement, working in concert with Transport Canada, the TSB, and other stakeholders. As part of this process, CBAA has made significant enhancements to its policies and standards. Unfortunately, with the minister's decision, further planned improvements have been put on hold.

As you are aware, CBAA has had an authority from Transport Canada for the POC program through regulations promulgated in 2005. Transport Canada announced, in 2005, regulatory amendments that allowed the CBAA to establish a new approach to safety oversight and certification of business aircraft operations. In his release, the then minister announced, “This innovative approach to safety in the business aircraft sector combines effective regulations with enhanced responsibility for safety systems within this community”.

Moreover, as stated in the Canada Gazette in 2005, the initiative was undertaken in recognition of the very low accident rate in the business aviation sector and with the expectation that departmental resources assigned to the day-to-day monitoring of this sector would be reassigned to areas of higher risk.

However, with the amendment, the Minister of Transport retained regulatory responsibility for business aircraft operations and also retained responsibility for providing regulatory oversight of auditing the CBAA and its systems and procedures. The primary new provision to be met by an operator under the new framework was the establishment of an SMS.

As Transport Canada states on its website, safety management systems are not self-regulation. Rather, they are an extra layer of safety to create a more comprehensive, robust, and demanding regulatory framework.

There has been an evolution of safety practices in transportation over the last decade. Traditionally, safety has been addressed through prescriptive regulations and standards by ensuring compliance. Prescribing safety is becoming more difficult and more demanding of limited resources. It is true that an entity can comply with regulations without effectively managing risks to acceptable levels. A more comprehensive approach, which includes systematically understanding and managing risks in the system, will enable us to make progress on safety objectives.

Safety management systems are formal frameworks designed to integrate safety and risk management into the daily operations of an aircraft operator. It is important to put responsibility for safety where it properly lies, that is, with the aircraft operator. Accountability has to be with the managers who are responsible not only for complying with the regulations, but also for making risk management decisions that are in the best interests of safety.

CBAA is of the view that this can best be achieved through performance-based regulations built on an SMS foundation. Moreover, CBAA fully supports a strong and robust oversight system and presence on the part of the regulator, Transport Canada.

Given that resources are not unbounded, it is CBAA's view that this oversight must be system based, but with a capacity to drill down as required to address areas of safety concern. To state the extreme, it is not possible to have an inspector examine every aircraft before every flight, nor is it possible to have an inspector on the flight deck for every flight.

Canada has been a world leader in the adoption of SMS. The International Civil Aviation Organization has recognized the benefits of the SMS approach and is requiring states to implement SMS as an international standard. In fact, the safety standards established by the International Business Aviation Council, which are SMS based, have been built on the CBAA's leadership work in this area.

Dr. Vernon Grose, a U.S.-based expert on the application of systems methodology to managing risk, described Canada's approach to SMS as “A Place in the Sun”. He lauded Canada for its worldwide leadership in aviation safety by shifting responsibility from government to aviation executives and for placing accountability for safety in their hands. It would be regrettable if the attacks on SMS were successful in undoing Canada's innovative approach and global leadership role in this area.

CBAA cannot undo the minister's decision. However, there is an opportunity for Transport Canada to continue its global leadership role by adopting performance-based regulations for business aviation that are based on safety management systems and industry best practices.

As I stated earlier, IBAC has established the international standards for business aviation operators. It is a code of best practices designed for business aviation operators to achieve a high level of safety and professionalism. Again, SMS is a fundamental part of these standards.

These standards have also been adopted by the European Aviation Safety Agency, EASA, for European business aviation operators. These standards have also been accepted by Air Safety Support International, which is a not-for-profit, wholly owned subsidiary of the United Kingdom's Civil Aviation Authority.

It is our recommendation, Mr. Chairman, that Transport Canada issue a certificate to Canadian business operators that meet the highest standards established by the CBAA and IBAC, with Transport Canada oversight. This approach will be the most successful in ensuring the continued excellence and safety record of this sector while allowing these companies to achieve their business goals in the most effective and efficient manner possible.

Once again, thank you for the opportunity to appear before you today.

In summary, business aviation in Canada has had, and continues to have, an excellent safety record.

The POC program administered by the CBAA is a performance-based regulatory framework built on SMS, and it has not been and is not self-regulation.

CBAA supports the strong and robust Transport Canada safety oversight of aviation in Canada.

Canada should maintain its innovative approach and leadership role in requiring SMS in the aviation industry.

Finally, Transport Canada should adopt performance-based regulations for business aviation that are based on SMS and industry best practices.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman and members of the committee.

[The Chair, Conservative, Merv Tweed]

Thank you very much.

Mr. Volpe.

[Joe Volpe, Liberal, Eglinton—Lawrence, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you to our witnesses.

If you don't mind, I'd like to start with Mr. Barone, because his presentation, while eloquent, leads to a lot of questions in my own mind.

Obviously we're a political party on this side, so we question things through a particular ideological position. We welcome the fact that the minister reinstituted the regulator's authority by taking back that which it had relegated to your organization.

The Transportation Safety Board, in examining one of their last incidents, found that commercial operators are required to implement SMS in stages on a fixed timeline, but that your membership in fact was free to implement SMS on its own terms and with no fixed timelines.

Part of your presentation gave me a sense that you bemoan the fact that the minister took back what he had given you; the other half says, oh, it's a great idea to have a robust system that combines SMS and a very active, aggressive presence by the regulator. I agree with the latter part, because it appears that you didn't do anything over the course of the last period when you had been given a mandate to implement what you call a forward-thinking and forward-operating system based on performance. Am I right?

[Sam Barone]

Is that a question or do you want me to agree with you?

[Joe Volpe, Liberal, Eglinton—Lawrence, ON]

Well, you know what? Maybe you don't have to agree with me.

Maybe you can answer why in your publication--and I'm going to quote you--you said, “As if a down business cycle were not enough, globally business aviation was under attack by being misrepresented in media circles”. I can agree with that.

You said, “In Ottawa, the aviation policy dialogue turned into more misrepresentation and political grandstanding.” Were you quoted accurately? Then you said, “Under the guise of advancing aviation safety in Canada, labour influenced political forces mobilized and waged a fear mongering campaign on the state of SMS and aviation safety in Canada”.

But here you are before our committee and you bemoan the fact that the minister finally accepts the call for responsibility by taking back the control over inspection that he had handed to you. He did it because he found--the Transportation Safety Board found--that you weren't doing anything. Were you misquoted?

[Sam Barone]

Thank you for the question.

I'm not clear as to what I was misquoted on, but I did write the article that the member refers to. I am being quoted accurately; yes, I did write that.

In terms of SMS--that we did nothing--I would contend, Mr. Chair, that SMS was an integral part of the licensing process that we were actually delegated from the minister's authority of 2005 and by exemption prior to 2005. As a matter of fact, as a condition of issuing the certificate, we would not issue a certificate unless the condition of having an audit, along with...an independent audit, rather, and the existence of a safety management system was evident and audited against that SMS.

So to say that we did nothing and that Transport Canada was not around as a regulator is also not accurate, from the point of view that Transport Canada indeed was assessing our activities throughout this whole period, well before the TSB--

[Joe Volpe, Liberal, Eglinton—Lawrence, ON]

Excuse me, Mr. Barone, but Transport Canada was assessing activities that they allowed you to put in place. Now, everybody thinks they know what it is that you put in place, but I guess my question is, what are those performance criteria that you put in place?

What training did you or your membership give its staff in order to prepare for SMS? What kinds of accountability measures did you put in place so that you could gauge what it was that your members did? And how did you report to Transport Canada? How did Transport Canada, in fact, monitor you? If it did, why is it that Transport Canada decided this after five years of giving you free rein and said “these guys are compromising the concept of SMS, so let's yank their certification”?

[Sam Barone]

Thank you for the question and commentary.

One of the things in developing the standards and--

[Joe Volpe, Liberal, Eglinton—Lawrence, ON]

Commentary is part of the game here. You came here and you gave...[Technical Difficulty--Editor]. We want to know about SMS and whether it's working. You wanted to engage in rhetoric; you're going to get the commentary.

[Sam Barone]

Thank you, Mr. Volpe.

One of the issues with respect to SMS and how we developed the standards was that we had a standards oversight committee, which also included officials from Transport Canada, officials from Industry, and the CBAA. They jointly put together these standards, which were then used as part of the certification process, along with other performance-based measures.

Art, did you want to elaborate on that process?

[Joe Volpe, Liberal, Eglinton—Lawrence, ON]

But what were they? What kind of training did you provide your people to implement the safety management system? What kind of training and what kind of follow-through did you put in? I haven't heard a word in that regard at all.

[Sam Barone]

Art will answer your question, Mr. Volpe. I think we can shed light on your comments.

[Art LaFlamme, Special Advisor to the President and Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Business Aviation Association]

Thank you. I'm Art LaFlamme.

Mr. Volpe, the staff of CBAA have had extensive training in SMS and have come from backgrounds in quality assurance and the aviation industry that have provided them with the knowledge and expertise required.

I'd like to correct one point. The regulations promulgated in 2005 did not give CBAA inspection authorities. It provided CBAA with the authority to issue certificates based on the member operators meeting a standard. With respect to the milestones--

[Joe Volpe, Liberal, Eglinton—Lawrence, ON]

It was an extension of trust that Transport Canada gave you by allowing you to certify that your equipment was safe for Canadians to utilize. That's what that meant. They did it on the basis that you were going to put in place a system that was thorough enough in the preparation of your membership: an investigation process, a reporting process, and then a follow-through.

When your mechanics looked at the equipment and filled out their forms, where did that form go and what did you do with it? When I say “you”, I mean your membership--

[Art LaFlamme]

Mr. Volpe--

[Joe Volpe, Liberal, Eglinton—Lawrence, ON]

What Transport Canada has found is that you didn't do anything with it.

[Art LaFlamme]

CBAA had no authority over maintenance. That remained with Transport Canada, so maintenance is entirely outside the authority of CBAA.

On the milestones with respect to SMS, we have noted the TSB's concerns and changes have been made and proposed to meet those concerns.

[The Chair, Conservative, Merv Tweed]

Monsieur Laframboise.

[Mario Laframboise, Bloc, Argenteuil—Papineau—Mirabel, QC]

I want to thank the witnesses for appearing before our committee.

My first questions are for Mr. Barone and Mr. LaFlamme.

Your association has previously had the opportunity to appear before our committee. However, your position on surveillance has radically changed. Today you're telling us that Transport Canada must ensure robust oversight. That's not what you were advocating at the time. The fact is that the people at the Transportation Safety Board have found your way of managing security management systems very tough. They appeared before this committee. I hope you read the minutes of that appearance. In the document they submitted to us, they said this:

What we found was that, while commercial operators were required to implement SMS in stages [...], business operators were free to implement SMS on their own terms with no fixed time frame. This means that many, including the operator in Fox Harbour, did not have a fully functioning SMS.

They congratulate the government for making the decision to take back oversight functions from your organization and to transfer them directly to Transport Canada on April 1, 2011. I believe that was a good decision. At the time, our fear was that this would become self-regulation. We did not agree. As a political party, the Bloc québécois has always opposed the idea of the industry itself regulating passenger safety. Obviously, the Transportation Safety Board's finding is very hard on your agency. You didn't do your job, and, inevitably, the fact that Transport Canada withdrew oversight functions and assumed them itself is, I think, what will enable the safety management system to progress.

However, that decision will not apply until April 1, 2011. I would like to know what guarantees I have that, until then, your members will effectively implement a safety management system. Have you taken measures to guarantee that, between now and April 1, 2011, there will be no more accidents for which you will be accused of not having done your job?

[Sam Barone]

Thank you for the question.

First of all, in terms of if our position has changed, we've very much complied with government regulatory frameworks, both before the minister had given us this in 2005.... We've always complied with regulatory frameworks of compliance, both required under the regulatory authority under which we were working....

Our position has changed. Obviously the world changed when the minister announced that he was going to repatriate this regulatory framework back to inside the department, and obviously we're going to comply with the change announced by the Minister of Transport. We were disappointed with it, but having said that, we will comply. We are working with Transport to ensure a smooth transition on a whole host of details between now and March 2011.

As you may recall, in the minister's announcement of March 16, 2010, the minister stated already that the Department of Transport and the civil aviation department at Transport Canada would immediately ensure additional oversight of the CBAA and its certification activities. So we will comply with Transport Canada to the fullest extent they require, either on witness audits or a review of our files, which they have always done over the last five or six years. They've always come into the office and reviewed files.

As well, as I stated earlier, with respect to all of the standards that were developed, they were always part of the process, and there was never the term “self-regulation”. I disagree with that point that we were self-regulated.

With respect to the TSB findings, there are many findings that we just don't agree with, but.... I will say that.

Art, did you want to add to that?

[Art LaFlamme]

Mr. Chair, I would just add that we take note of the concerns expressed by the TSB regarding the safety management systems and the way CBAA implemented them. As a requirement for certification, the operators had to be audited and had to have met the standard for safety management systems. However, noting that--