Thank you for the question.
The Canadian system of delegating authority, at least in the context of our aircraft certification, goes back to 1968. It's a well-established and well-developed system. I would agree that to the outsider it may involve a suspicion of conflict of interest. The reality is that the delegation system has been promulgated and accepted, not only within Transport Canada but to these external holders, to leverage our resources to allow and give credit to those organizations that have that expertise and can make the call.
The key to the whole process working and where we can really shut the door on any concerns of conflict of interest is our oversight of those delegates in doing that work. That is the key. As I said earlier, delegating the authority does not equate to relinquishing the regulator's knowledge and understanding of what is being done and what is being carried out. Right up until the moment a delegate in the Canadian system makes a determination of compliance to a particular requirement, they have had a discussion with their counterpart in my organization to agree mutually, working as a team, as to whether that finding should be made. It is not the case, necessarily, of somebody going away—out of sight, out of mind—and making these determinations on their own.
We're well conscious of the potential for conflict of interest. We've set up a system within the companies whereby the delegates themselves can reach across the room or across the table to us as the regulator and point out where they may be in a situation where their superiors are pressuring them. They have systems and mentors within their own companies that allow them to reach out and have those conversations.
We meet at least quarterly with every major delegated organization that we interface with. These are the types of things we are talking about in terms of how to maintain and how to, shall I say, nip it in the bud, if we've heard any signals of a delegate being pressured to make a decision that went against his or her technical best judgment. That feedback loop and that transparency is very consciously and very deliberately built into our delegation system to address the very concern that you raised.