On the marine side, we did follow the coming into force of SMS at the international level, so we were not late at having the regulations. You can read, for example, SOLAS 98, but usually member states have about 18 months to implement a new set of regulations adopted by the International Maritime Organization. We've been following that and it has been in place for the past 15 years, at least.
There are challenges that we face internally for the domestic fleet. I must mention that many of our operators have adopted the safety management systems and they're using the services of recognized organizations to do the work, and we do audit them. We are fully informed when they're doing what we call the document of compliance, which is at the company level, and the certificate of compliance, which is at the vessel level. The challenge that we're facing at this juncture domestically is right down to the smaller operators, for example, fishing vessels and small passenger operations. How much of a large international system can they actually adopt?
We've done some preliminary work with many of the smaller operators. We've done some pilot projects. We have learned from those pilot projects and what I present in my presentation is we think we can go further at this juncture.
We also look at SMS in a holistic way. We do not think that it's just the federal regulator who is responsible for SMS. We think that, for example, the provincial workers' compensation boards have an interest in this as they are covering for accidents, liabilities, and for workers. We have seen some very interesting projects with WorkSafeBC, which is the equivalent of a workers' compensation board in British Columbia. They are helping operators with reductions in premiums when they adopt SMS on a voluntary basis. We think that there is major progress there. We're also working with the underwriters, asking them to help us implement SMS with smaller operators, and of course the provinces are authorizing commercial operations in their areas. Before they allow a commercial operation, they request that the company adopt a SMS.
Federal regulations, of course, need to have a pan-Canadian application, and the more broadly we look at it and the deeper we go, the more complex it gets.