Evidence of meeting #126 for Transport, Infrastructure and Communities in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was airline.
A recording is available from Parliament.
10:40 a.m.
Air Canada Captain (retired), Director, Northern Lights Aero Foundation, As an Individual
You have to be able to do simple addition and subtraction.
The other is that you have to have perfect 20/20 vision. That's also not true.
I think the problem is that we're just not getting young kids interested early enough, and I'm a perfect example. I had to go back to school before I started my aviation college. I had not taken grade 12 math. I was in an arts program at university, so I had limited my options already.
I think you need to get them younger.
I can't answer your question as to why that first flight wasn't absolutely motivational for them. It certainly was for me, and there are a lot of programs like this. The Ninety-Nines has Girls Take Flight. One of our directors at Northern Lights does this. They had 1,000 people this year at Oshawa, where 221 girls and women were taken flying. I'm sure a number of them were interested in pursuing a career after this.
I think it is exposure, having more things like Elevate. Again I'm referring to a lady in the audience. She runs an organization, and they are going to be going to 20 cities across Canada and promoting various aviation careers. She's an air traffic controller, so it's not just pilots; it's air traffic control, maintenance, and different areas. I think kids need to be exposed to this, and the more hands-on experience, the better. It shouldn't just be someone speaking in a classroom.
10:40 a.m.
Liberal
David Graham Liberal Laurentides—Labelle, QC
I want to build on that a little bit. When I was a kid, whenever I flew, I always went into the cockpit. It was fun. Then 9/11 happened, and that obviously changed a lot of this.
You're an experienced pilot. Do you see a safety issue? Is there a way of perhaps pre-clearing people who have an interest to get into the cockpit before a flight so that we can bring this experience back? Is that possible?
10:40 a.m.
Air Canada Captain (retired), Director, Northern Lights Aero Foundation, As an Individual
One of the biggest burning desires for any airline pilot was to be able to have their family back in the flight deck again. If you can't trust your children or your spouse, really who can you trust?
10:40 a.m.
Liberal
10:40 a.m.
Air Canada Captain (retired), Director, Northern Lights Aero Foundation, As an Individual
It's really a pity that this can't be addressed. We have NEXUS cards. We have various security things. I'd like to see that change.
10:40 a.m.
Director, International Board of Directors, Governor, East Canada Section, The Ninety-Nines, Inc., International Organization of Women Pilots
Could I speak on that?
10:40 a.m.
Director, International Board of Directors, Governor, East Canada Section, The Ninety-Nines, Inc., International Organization of Women Pilots
I think with the thousands and thousands of kids we've taken up for flights, they see it as a free flight. We have found with our program that it's the parents who are the hindrance. When the child says they want to become a pilot, their natural reaction is, “You're going to crash and die. No. You can't do that. Nobody in our family has ever done that.”
We changed, and this year in the program you have to already be of flying age. We had seven events where we took them up. If they were in high school, the parent had to come for the flight as well. At every single one of the events, we had anywhere from one to three people sign up, with the flying school that was there talking to them on the spot. I think we have to look at the older kids, not the little ones.
10:40 a.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Owners and Pilots Association
To add to what Robin was saying, last year COPA started giving anyone of flying age, 14 to 17, free online ground school and a logbook to go into flight school. If you're 14 to 17, your next step is to open that door to the flight school. We're pushing for that.
10:40 a.m.
Liberal
David Graham Liberal Laurentides—Labelle, QC
Okay.
On the point about danger, when I was in flying school we liked to say that the most dangerous time in a pilot's day was driving to the airport. If people could understand that....
I think the Southwest incident a year ago, when a passenger was sucked out of the window and killed, was the first death on a commercial flight in the U.S. in something like nine years. There's this whole myth of an airplane not being safe. How do we share the fact that it is by far the safest means of travel in the world?
10:40 a.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Owners and Pilots Association
Last year we, COPA and Transport, started the general aviation safety campaign. They asked us to help them with it. This is a communication tool we're using to show to the general public that flying is safe, extremely safe, so there will be some more publicity and communication out there.
10:45 a.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Judy Sgro
Thank you very much to our witnesses. This was very informative. You certainly gave our analysts lots of possible recommendations that the committee might want to put forward. I thank you very much for taking the time today.
I wish everyone here a Merry Christmas.
I have one thought for the committee. I did not plan a meeting for Thursday; we had that discussion. Given the fact that it looks like we will be here, is it the desire of the committee to have a meeting on Thursday? We could try to pull together a meeting on Thursday. If so, I'd like to see overwhelming support for that.
I don't see any overwhelming enthusiasm for trying to schedule for Thursday. Thank you very much.
Again, Merry Christmas. Thank you all very much for your co-operation.
We are adjourned.