Transport Committee on June 10th, 2014

[Capt Dan Adamus]

As far as I know from our nine operators, they do most of the work in-house or in Canada.

[Hoang Mai, NDP, Brossard—La Prairie, QC]

I have another question for ALPA again.

We heard that there were some issues with respect to inspection without notice. Can you tell us whether or not your members have been inspected without notice within the past few years?

[Capt Dan Adamus]

If you're talking pilots specifically, normally, if we're in a simulator, we get 24 hours notice, just to say that somebody is coming with you. If it's a line check, they show up at the gate, so it's completely unannounced.

[Hoang Mai, NDP, Brossard—La Prairie, QC]

Okay.

For my final question, it was raised that there is a fatigue issue and we also saw the same problem with rail. One of the problems that we have right now is that nothing has been done. Can you tell us more about that? For us, fatigue really is a safety issue.

[Capt Craig Blandford]

Yes, we have gone through the Transport Canada process of taking all the stakeholders, putting them into a room for several years, talking about what needs to be done, looking at the science of fatigue. That's very important, the science of fatigue. All the stakeholders got together, wrote a report, made a recommendation. They were recommending changes to the flight and duty times in this country because our duty times are very much out of date. That report was filed in November, 2012, and it's going through the Transport Canada process of being evaluated, trying to create regulations. It's been 18 months, and, of course, we expect probably another year or two...it could create some regulations and go through Justice. It's going to take a long time.

We all know that the Colgan Air crash in the United States caused that process to accelerate greatly. We don't want that in this country, and I don't want to be dramatic. I'm not using safety that way, but flight and duty times need to be [Inaudible--Editor]. It is our biggest issue right now.

[The Chair, Conservative, Larry Miller]

Thank you.

Mr. McGuinty, for four minutes.

[David McGuinty, Liberal, Ottawa South, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Gentlemen, are you aware that in the public accounts from 2011-12 to 2012-13 there has been an 11% cut in aviation safety spending by Transport Canada?

[Capt Craig Blandford]

I'm not aware of those.

[David McGuinty, Liberal, Ottawa South, ON]

You're not tracking those numbers.

[Capt Dan Adamus]

I do know there's been a cut to the budget. Yes, I do know that.

[David McGuinty, Liberal, Ottawa South, ON]

Mr. McKenna, are your companies aware of that?

[John McKenna]

Yes, we are following that. Transport Canada assures us these cuts were not safety related.

[David McGuinty, Liberal, Ottawa South, ON]

Although it's under the heading of aviation safety, they're not safety related. Is that right? I don't want to put you on the spot.

[John McKenna]

Well, that's their answer.

[David McGuinty, Liberal, Ottawa South, ON]

I'm sure that's their answer.

Mr. Adamus and Mr. Blandford—Captains both, forgive me—do you know the Canadian Federal Pilots Association?

[Capt Dan Adamus]

We're aware of it.

[Capt Craig Blandford]

Yes.

[David McGuinty, Liberal, Ottawa South, ON]

Is it a credible organization?

[Capt Dan Adamus]

They represent the Transport Canada inspectors.

[David McGuinty, Liberal, Ottawa South, ON]

Are they credible?

[Capt Dan Adamus]

I don't know a whole lot about them; I'm sure they are.

[Capt Craig Blandford]

I don't know anything about their structure or their governance. I don't know what their mandates are. I know they're the union that represents the pilots.

[David McGuinty, Liberal, Ottawa South, ON]

Right.

And so we're told through testimony by Mr. Daniel Slunder, who is the head of that association, that they represent 382 licensed pilots who work as inspectors at Transport Canada and at the Transportation Safety Board. They also represent 32 licensed pilots who work at Nav Canada. Those would be pretty qualified people, right?

[Capt Dan Adamus]

They certainly know Transport Canada, yes.

[Capt Craig Blandford]

Absolutely. Some of those are peers, people I went to school with, people I flew with in the air force. Absolutely.