Evidence of meeting #130 for Transport, Infrastructure and Communities in the 44th Parliament, 1st session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was communities.
A video is available from Parliament.
NDP
Taylor Bachrach NDP Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC
Mr. McCrea, do you feel that's the way of the world, or is there a way the federal government could put its thumb on the scale in favour of smaller carriers? I talk to a lot of people in our region who would love to see small, local companies providing service. That's something they want to see emphasized.
Is there a role for government in that, or, at the end of the day, is it “That's just business”?
President, Central Mountain Air
It's just business, to some degree.
Certainly, it's about an alignment of interline agreements to open up the playing field and a bit of policing when it comes to changing frequency or fare levels on a predatory basis.
NDP
Taylor Bachrach NDP Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC
Thanks for that.
I'll switch to the topic of interline agreements.
We had some interesting debate and testimony at committee from Mr. Sparling and others who are big advocates of interline agreements.
Does CMA currently have any code-shares with larger airlines?
President, Central Mountain Air
We do, yes. We have code-shares with Air Canada and interline agreements with both Air Canada and WestJet.
NDP
Taylor Bachrach NDP Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC
I believe what Mr. Sparling has been advocating for is a government mandate that would essentially require the larger airlines to provide those code-shares to smaller airlines.
If such a mandate were put in place, would it help companies like yours reach larger markets and provide competitive pricing and service to the people you serve?
President, Central Mountain Air
I think it would help.
At the end of the day, again, both parties need to agree on that level playing field and on fair practices.
NDP
Taylor Bachrach NDP Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC
Earlier, you mentioned upgrades to gravel surfaces and de-icing infrastructure. Obviously, in smaller communities, these are issues that would improve access.
In the area you serve, what are some of the communities you feel could use those kinds of upgrades?
President, Central Mountain Air
From the gravel runway standpoint, we go into a fairly small first nations village two or three days a week. Simply, it's about going forward with pilot experience. There is also damage to aircraft from the gravel runway.
It would be an improvement, for sure.
NDP
Taylor Bachrach NDP Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC
We heard from some of our other witnesses about duty time regulations and the impact they've had. I think one figure cited earlier was a 20% increase in pilot costs.
Is that a similar experience for Central Mountain Air? How have you managed those increased costs when it comes to duty time?
President, Central Mountain Air
We've certainly accommodated them. The regulations create a level playing field to some degree. I certainly think they could be reviewed to provide some sort of relaxation regarding the end of the duty period, in order to get through the day.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Peter Schiefke
Thank you very much, Mr. Bachrach.
Colleagues, we have about 10 minutes left. If it's okay, we'll do a lightning round of two and a half minutes each and spread that around.
We'll start with you, Mr. Vis. The floor is yours.
Conservative
Brad Vis Conservative Mission—Matsqui—Fraser Canyon, BC
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Mr. Cane, you mentioned earlier that the flight and duty regulations led to a 20% increase in staffing, I believe you said, when they were implemented. Can you please clarify for this committee why those regulations caused such an increase and when those regulations came into effect?
Senior Vice-President, Operations, Summit Air Ltd.
The regulations came into effect on January 1. Well, it depends. If you're an airline, it depends on the category of aircraft that you operate, and there was a split so that it was easier on the industry, but it was a requirement to hire more pilots.
Basically, it limited the amount of duty that pilots could fly. In the north, our pilots often fly more seasonally. They fly more in the summertime than they do in the winter, but the new flight and duty regs ignore that. They basically take something that was a table that would fit on half a page—the old flight and duty regulations—and turn it into an 11-page document.
That was the change. It's all-encompassing. It affects the local night's rest. It affects basically taking a pilot from one jurisdiction in Canada and naturalizing him to a new base. It's very complex, and that's okay. The fact of the matter is that we wanted something that would be right-sized for the north and make sense and also provide a higher level of safety. It's 20% more flight crew in an environment that already has a worldwide pilot shortage—
Conservative
Senior Vice-President, Operations, Summit Air Ltd.
I'm sorry. Do you mean clarify the worldwide pilot shortage...?
Conservative
Brad Vis Conservative Mission—Matsqui—Fraser Canyon, BC
No. Clarify what year the regulations came into effect.
Senior Vice-President, Operations, Summit Air Ltd.
Doug, feel free to jump in here, but for 705 airlines, I think it was January 1, 2022.
Is that right, Doug?
Senior Vice-President, Operations, Summit Air Ltd.
Yes, it has been two years. It was January 1, 2023 for the smaller air carriers with the smaller categories of aircraft—19 seats or less.
Conservative
Brad Vis Conservative Mission—Matsqui—Fraser Canyon, BC
Thank you.
Did these regulations lead to an improvement of safety in your operations and—
Senior Vice-President, Operations, Summit Air Ltd.
That's.... I'm sorry. There's a second part of the question. Go ahead.
Conservative
Brad Vis Conservative Mission—Matsqui—Fraser Canyon, BC
No. Please answer the first one. That's fine.
Senior Vice-President, Operations, Summit Air Ltd.
I would say no. They've led to increased administration costs.
Because the regulations are so complex now, it took us a while: It took a while for software to be invented that could manage them. We did not have in our database of safety.... We're all required to have a database of safety incidents and proactive reports, and there was not any type of reduction of fatigue-based reporting post implementation of duty regs.
In fact, fatigue was never on Transport Canada's TSB watch list until very recently.