Evidence of meeting #81 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 year.
A video is available from Parliament.
4:05 p.m.
Conservative
Ben Lobb Conservative Huron—Bruce, ON
On that 85-15 number, is that calculation over a 24-hour period? Is that how you calculate that?
4:05 p.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Air Transport Security Authority
No. It's done on an annual basis per airport, so it's not done on a 24-hour basis.
4:05 p.m.
Conservative
4:05 p.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Air Transport Security Authority
Yes.
4:05 p.m.
Conservative
Ben Lobb Conservative Huron—Bruce, ON
Do you have numbers that you can identify each hour to see how your performance is? Do you have those numbers?
4:05 p.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Air Transport Security Authority
I would say that I believe we do, yes.
4:05 p.m.
Conservative
Ben Lobb Conservative Huron—Bruce, ON
Is that a document that you could share with the committee? It can't be a private number; it must be a public number. Is it?
4:05 p.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Air Transport Security Authority
I think that's something we can share, yes.
4:05 p.m.
Conservative
Ben Lobb Conservative Huron—Bruce, ON
I would venture a guess that 85-15 is pretty achievable, because I'm sure all members of this committee have travelled in all areas and at all hours of the night and day. I would argue that from evening hours into the late flights it's probably a couple of minutes to get through security, but I also, like some of my colleagues, I'm sure, have walked through the front door of terminal one at Pearson on a Monday morning between 7 a.m. and 10 a.m., and I don't know if it's ever been 85 and 15. I'm curious as to what those numbers are. Could you table those?
4:10 p.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Air Transport Security Authority
I think, sir, that you're referring to the peak hours. Those are a little different, but it's all factored into the 85-15 that we're seeking as a target annually.
4:10 p.m.
Conservative
Ben Lobb Conservative Huron—Bruce, ON
Okay. Thank you.
Again, I don't know.... Maybe you can't talk about this or you don't want to, but the repaving of Pearson airport runway 05-23.... Is that how you say it?
4:10 p.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Air Transport Security Authority
Sir, it would have nothing to do with CATSA. That's not within our mandate.
4:10 p.m.
Conservative
Ben Lobb Conservative Huron—Bruce, ON
I'm sorry.
To the witnesses who are here, can anybody comment on that?
4:10 p.m.
Assistant Deputy Minister, Corporate Services and Chief Financial Officer, Department of Transport
That would be under the airport authority, so we wouldn't have a line of sight on that at all.
4:10 p.m.
Conservative
4:10 p.m.
Assistant Deputy Minister, Corporate Services and Chief Financial Officer, Department of Transport
No. The operations of the airport are managed by the airport authority.
4:10 p.m.
Conservative
Ben Lobb Conservative Huron—Bruce, ON
Fair enough, but the Minister of Transport is responsible for travel in this country. There were over 1,000 flights cancelled or delayed due to that runway. When they are going to repave a runway as vital as that one, is there no discussion between Transport Canada and the airport authority? Is that what you're telling me?
4:10 p.m.
Assistant Deputy Minister, Corporate Services and Chief Financial Officer, Department of Transport
No, there wouldn't be.
4:10 p.m.
Conservative
Ben Lobb Conservative Huron—Bruce, ON
Is that an opportunity, do you think, where there could be some corrections made in the future on timing or what have you? Because ultimately, as a consumer.... In the House of Commons here, we are discussing the Transportation Act and the modernization of travelling and making it much more efficient. For me, as just a regular guy walking the streets, I would say that this would be something that the Minister of Transport and the airport authority should be working in conjunction on, because that was a disaster this spring. Maybe I'm naive, but to think that the minister has no information or discussion with Air Canada itself and the authority I think is a little surprising.
4:10 p.m.
Assistant Deputy Minister, Safety and Security, Department of Transport
Thank you for the question.
I'll just add that through our safety and security area and working with our civil aviation and aviation security experts, we have a constant dialogue on issues with airports across the country and with various airlines. In those conversations, we talk to them about the impacts of the airport, but we don't direct things such as when and how they would pave a landing strip, as an example. However, we have conversations about the things that are happening, and we give input and provide thoughts and advice on certain issues.
4:10 p.m.
Liberal
4:10 p.m.
Liberal
Ken Hardie Liberal Fleetwood—Port Kells, BC
Thank you, Madam Chair.
I want to take advantage of the fact that we have some Transport Canada officials here to look for some information that you probably won't have, but I'll ask you to supply it to us. It has to do with a study we're doing right now on the tanker moratorium off the north coast.
One question that has come up a few times has to do with the threshold amount of oil that can be barged between communities in that area. Right now, the legislation is proposing a threshold of 12,500 tonnes. We've heard from several witnesses that this is an awful lot of oil on a barge, and that it isn't necessary. The average village up that way, when it's being replenished, needs maybe 3,200 tonnes. I'm wondering if somebody can get back to us with the rationale for where that threshold number of 12,500 tonnes came from.
4:10 p.m.
Assistant Deputy Minister, Corporate Services and Chief Financial Officer, Department of Transport
We'll certainly take that back.
4:10 p.m.
Liberal
Ken Hardie Liberal Fleetwood—Port Kells, BC
The other piece of this, though, hopefully would start showing up on your budgets fairly soon. Transport Canada will have obligations to enforce. In other words, if a ship enters the zone, it needs to be checked to make sure that it doesn't have the wrong type of material on board or too much of the wrong type of material. Have there been any provisions made to improve Transport Canada's capacity to enforce in that area?
