Thank you.
Mr. Chairman and honourable members, thank you for the opportunity to appear before you today to discuss the Canadian transportation safety regime, including safety management systems. We appreciate the opportunity to discuss this topic from a Canadian airports perspective.
My name is Daniel-Robert Gooch. I am the president of the Canadian Airports Council. Joining me via teleconference are Chris Farmer, from the Greater Moncton International Airport, and Gordon Duke and Michael Rantala, from the Halifax International Airport Authority. As they are airport operational practitioners at class 2 and class 1 airports respectively, I will defer to them for most of the Q and A component of this appearance. I also request your patience, as we may need to follow up with the committee on answers to some of your questions and will of course advise if that is the case.
The CAC is the voice for Canada's airports. Our 45 members operate more than 120 Canadian airports, including nearly all of the national airports-system airports and most major passenger service airports in the provinces and territories. Together, CAC members handle virtually all of the nation's air cargo and international passenger traffic and 90% of domestic passenger traffic.
Safety, of course, is the top concern for the CAC and our member airports. Aviation is the safest mode of transportation there is. This is said so often that it may sound like a cliché, but it is absolutely true, and it permeates all levels of our member airport organizations.
Safety management systems have been characterized as a business-like approach to safety, “a systematic, explicit and comprehensive process for managing safety risks”. A safety management system is part of the DNA of an organization, is part of its culture, and is the way people throughout an organization do their jobs. Airports in Canada support safety management systems and believe this is the right approach for Canada. It reinforces the culture of safety that already existed and promotes a national standard and approach for aviation safety at our nation's airports.
In the case of class 1 airports in Canada, an SMS process has been implemented and activated as per the requirements stipulated by Transport Canada. Many class 2 airports have also completed the implementation of their SMS, while others are in the final stage of having their phase four documentation review completed and are implementing their SMS process.
As the phased implementation of SMS moves forward for airports in Canada, the CAC members have established an SMS working group to lead the development and implementation of the requirements of the SMS regulations, in order to promote a consistent application of the regulations across the country. In the long term, this allows airports to share information and facilitate the sharing of knowledge for the development of subject matter experts.
This partnership approach also allows Canadian airports to establish and share best practices and provide a nationwide approach to implementing SMS. Furthermore, the working group developed a common system of reporting so that information sharing across member airports would be facilitated and site-specific or regional variances between airports on these core issues would be minimized.
The objective of the working group was to establish and maintain a robust SMS process across all airports with a far-reaching scope that includes but is not limited to the following: SMS policy, non-punitive reporting systems, performance objectives, performance measures and targets, hazard identification, reactive/proactive reporting processes, accident/incident investigation, risk assessment, quality assurance, safety management plan format, communications, and sharing of best practices.
The working group also uses Transport Canada's guidelines and evaluation tool, as well as International Civil Aviation Organization—ICAO—SMS documentation as their base.
Now I would like to make a few comments about the issue of dangerous goods, which we understand is also a focus of the standing committee.
Airport employees do not typically handle the transportation of dangerous goods, as this is the responsibility of refuellers for aircraft fuel and air carriers for air cargo that includes dangerous goods. Nevertheless, as with other modes of the transportation sector, the transport of all dangerous goods in and around airports is governed by dangerous goods regulations. In the air mode, these regulations are based on the ICAO technical instructions, which establish the rules for the safe transport of dangerous goods at airports within Canada and abroad.
The aviation industry and our airport members are committed to continuous improvement of standards, processes, and training requirements for dangerous goods. An example of this is the shared investment by airports along with air carriers and fuelling organizations in the update and maintenance of the Canadian Standards Association standard for the storage handling and dispensing of fuel at airports. This dictates common standards by which fuel is managed and adhered to by all parties involved in fuel at airports. CAC members are actively involved in the ongoing revision and updating of this standard.
Thank you for your time and we are pleased to answer any questions you may have. I will defer questions to my colleagues on the phone as appropriate.