I guess there are two distinct issues. The issue of whether you have a prescriptive regulatory approach, or a performance-based one, has been around in aviation for quite awhile. We're really talking about matters of airworthiness, and operation, and so on. Noise regulations are a much more subjective issue. Transport Canada does ultimately regulate noise at airports, and that's why we have noise-abatement procedures and a whole host of curfews in some places, and so on. I think the two are quite exclusive; I don't think one needs to affect the other at all. The performance-based navigation approach and a more modern way of handling aircraft, in fact, is much more noise-friendly, if you will, to people on the ground than the old way of doing it.
On May 31st, 2012. See this statement in context.