Thank you, Mr. Chair and honourable members of the committee.
Transport Action Canada, founded in 1976, is a non-profit national organization promoting the rights and interests of passengers—air, rail, bus, transit—and advocating for the use of public transit. It's a registered charity.
I shall probably have to summarize my notes a bit because we have to fit everything into five minutes.
Transport Action notes with approval the intent of the federal government to establish an air passenger rights regime with an airline code, and maybe an airline passenger complaints commissioner.
We agree with the recommendations of the Public Interest Advocacy Centre in their report for the Transportation Act review secretariat.
Now I shall present some of our questions. Some of this will be in English, but I will start out in French if I may.
I will now talk about personnel issues.
The first issue is flight crew fatigue management. How adequate are rest times between assignments? Are crew and passengers put at risk by long hours or do crew get adequate respite between and during flights? Are methods of keeping the crew awake effective, or are they a form of harassment that can be counter-productive to alertness? Can video surveillance of the cockpit crew respect the rights of personnel while enhancing safety, or is it rather a form of intrusive micromanagement?
The second issue is the proficiency of foreign flight crews. What will be done by Transport Canada to screen foreign flight crews to determine the adequacy of their training, safety record, number of hours flying, and so on? Is it safe to allow any crew from any other country to operate a Canadian aircraft without approval by Canadian authorities?
The third issue concerns the effects of toxic vapours inside the cabin. Our question has a specific focus on flammable materials such as some wiring insulation—for example, Kapton—and thermal insulation, such as Mylar. What is the current use of such materials in Canadian commercial aircraft? Are counter measures in place to prevent vapours and/or smoke to avoid another disaster like that of Swissair Flight 111?
With regard to enforcement and monitoring of legislation, there are several questions, but we are particularly interested in training and competencies as well as audit and inspection practices and procedures. This relates somewhat to the previous colleague's presentation.
The Canadian Federal Pilots Association recently cited an Abacus study that revealed “broad concern about recent cuts to aviation safety oversight and an ominous sense that a major aviation accident in Canada is likely to occur in the near future”. That's a quote. That's not me saying that. They said it.
At the heart of these concerns are reductions in inspection personnel and Transport Canada's reliance on the carriers' safety management systems in place of regular inspections. Questions include whether any study has been undertaken on the safety effects of cuts to inspection personnel, and whether any empirical evidence exists as to the effectiveness or not of the airlines' SMS, particularly if it is not strongly backed by Transport Canada's own vigilance.
Following the Lac-Mégantic disaster, Transport Canada eventually hired more railway inspectors. Will the aviation authorities at Transport Canada follow suit is the question.
We didn't select sections 3 and 4 for comments or questions, so we'll go to accident intervention in French.