Evidence of meeting #31 for Transport, Infrastructure and Communities in the 41st Parliament, 2nd session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was aviation.
A recording is available from Parliament.
National President, Union of Canadian Transportation Employees
It is a full inspection following the process of going unannounced to a company and checking all parts that need to be inspected.
Conservative
Peter Braid Conservative Kitchener—Waterloo, ON
Okay, so this change was made under a previous government, I might add. I think the Liberals were the government in 2004. Thank you for clarifying that.
How many announced inspections have been conducted this year?
National President, Union of Canadian Transportation Employees
I would say 20.
Conservative
National President, Union of Canadian Transportation Employees
The change of focus from the traditional is that the inspections done today are on quality assurance.
Conservative
National President, Union of Canadian Transportation Employees
The inspections that are being conducted today have a different focus—
National President, Union of Canadian Transportation Employees
—versus 10 years ago.
National President, Union of Canadian Transportation Employees
The focus is on quality assurance of the company reports, and on meeting and discussing with the company representatives for the problems as opposed to full, direct inspection.
Conservative
Peter Braid Conservative Kitchener—Waterloo, ON
Through this inspection process, what type of issue would be identified and how would it be addressed?
National President, Union of Canadian Transportation Employees
What would be identified would be the problems that are identified from the company's internal audits and from the discussions on the issues that they raise. Those are for the SMS companies.
When I am talking about inspections, I'm not including those companies that are non-SMS because there still remain some in the industry that are not SMS.
Conservative
Isabelle Morin NDP Notre-Dame-de-Grâce—Lachine, QC
I would like to come back to the number of 13,000 that my colleague Mr. Watson mentioned.
According to the background document requested by my colleague Olivia Chow, the number of inspections has continue to drop considerably since 2007. In 2007, there were about 20,000 of them, and then that dropped to 19,000, then 17,000 and 13,000 in 2011. We can thus deduce that the number of inspections continues to drop.
You said that theses inspections were announced. That is like telling the concerned companies that you were coming to check on this or that element ahead of time. It gives them plenty of time to prepare.
How many days ahead do you notify companies of an upcoming inspection?
National President, Union of Canadian Transportation Employees
It can range from a few days' notice to six weeks' notice.
NDP
Isabelle Morin NDP Notre-Dame-de-Grâce—Lachine, QC
I see. With six weeks' notice, they have plenty of time to prepare.
National President, Union of Canadian Transportation Employees
So more and more it's a six-week notice period.
NDP
Isabelle Morin NDP Notre-Dame-de-Grâce—Lachine, QC
With six weeks, they have plenty of time to correct problems before your visit.
National President, Union of Canadian Transportation Employees
That's what we say, yes.
National Chair, Canadian Federal Pilots Association
It is even more ludicrous when we buy tickets from the company itself in order to conduct an inspection. It becomes impossible for us to hide.
NDP
Isabelle Morin NDP Notre-Dame-de-Grâce—Lachine, QC
I see! That is quite interesting.
I believe I heard you say that it would be good to have an independent agency to receive people's complaints.
What would such an agency look like? What would be its mission? How could it function to make it easier to submit an anonymous comment?
National President, Union of Canadian Transportation Employees
I would see it as a separate body outside of Transport Canada, outside of the companies themselves, a sort of ombudsman-type office where employees of the government and employees of the companies could report issues and problems without fear of reprisal and job loss.
National Chair, Canadian Federal Pilots Association
Allow me to mention that I became aware of an incident involving an airline company. One of its employees had submitted reports through the SMS, all of which had been ignored. Subsequently, the employee submitted a report using Transport Canada's civil aviation issues reporting system. However, a Transport Canada manager told the company about the report, and the employee was subsequently fired. I was summoned to testify in court, but the company went out of business before the hearing.
