Good morning, Madam Chair, and members of the committee.
My name is Neil Parry, vice-president, service delivery for the Canadian Air Transport Security Authority, CATSA.
As background, CATSA was established April 1, 2002. It is an agent crown corporation funded through parliamentary appropriations and accountable to Parliament through the Minister of Transport.
Responsibility for civil aviation security in Canada is shared among several federal departments and agencies, as well as air carriers and airport authorities. Specifically, CATSA is responsible for the effective and efficient screening of persons who access aircraft or restricted areas through screening points, the property in their possession or control, and the belongings or baggage that they give to an air carrier for transportation.
CATSA is regulated by Transport Canada, Canada's lead national civil aviation authority.
CATSA's mandate outlines its four core responsibilities within the realm of aviation security. We are responsible for pre-board screening, which is the screening of passengers; hold baggage screening, or checked baggage screening; non-passenger screening; and for managing the restricted area identity card program.
Given the nature of today's meeting, our focus on the screening of airport workers accessing secure areas of the airport, I'd like to comment quickly on two parts of that mandate—the restricted area identity card program and the non-passenger screening program.
As noted by my colleague from Transport Canada, in order to routinely access restricted areas of an airport, an individual must first attain the transportation security clearance that is managed and issued by Transport Canada. The authority that determines access privileges to the restricted area is the airport authority itself. CATSA manages the restricted area identity card program, which uses iris and fingerprint biometric platforms and identifiers to enable airports to validate that non-passenger's access privileges to the restricted areas of the airport.
Non-passenger screening refers to the screening of non-passengers accessing restricted areas at major airports. Non-passengers could include flight and cabin crews, airline customer service personnel, caterers, maintenance personnel, baggage handlers, and various other airport staff.
In budget 2014, CATSA received three-year funding to implement an enhanced non-passenger screening program to meet Transport Canada regulations that were in support of the International Civil Aviation Organization's standards.
In collaboration with airports, we have implemented enhanced non-passenger screening at access points within the main airport terminal buildings and vehicles accessing restricted areas around the commercial apron. They are now screened at Canada's busiest airports.
With that introduction I'm pleased to answer any questions the committee may have.
Thank you.