Thank you, Mr. Chair and members of the committee.
My name is Myles Cane. I'm the senior vice-president of operations for Summit Air. Summit Air is a wholly owned subsidiary and member of the Ledcor Group of Companies. I have been involved in Arctic aviation for a period of 33 years. I've performed various roles. I've been an aviation mechanic. I've been an aviation pilot. I've held a variety of management roles over the past 20 years. My role at Summit is very much operational. I'm based in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories.
I'm also the vice-president of the Northern Air Transport Association on the executive committee. For those of you who are not aware, it's a membership group of over two dozen northern airlines. We meet annually at our AGM and meet regularly with our regulator and various other government factions to forward our initiatives and interests in the Arctic.
Summit Air is a business that's a bit different compared with the usual model of aviation carriers. We're a charter business. We're not a scheduled carrier at all, but we support an important market for industry and investment in the north in that we support oil and gas, mining, food retailers and government. The private sector and tourism are our primary clients. We also have a diverse fleet. We have over 25 aircraft now and 300 employees. We have bases in the south, in Alberta, but our primary base is in Yellowknife.
I would welcome questions today that fall into three different categories. First of all, I want to echo some of the comments of the previous witnesses on the essential nature of aviation in the north. My role in NATA has seen a lot of participation in providing comment and guidance to new government regulation. We've seen some shocking disregard for this guidance from the subject matter experts on this jurisdiction, who all operate safe airlines 24-7 in this area. We see new regulations coming down the pipe that have an even more dire impact on the Canadian north and on the constituents and residents of the Canadian Arctic, who will see a further degradation in quality of living and an increase in costs in these areas.
I welcome those questions. These are tied into airport infrastructure issues. Our airports are woefully behind the times in terms of capabilities, lighting and equipment. I also welcome questions around the Competition Act and recent merger activities in the Canadian Arctic with several different carriers.
Those are my opening remarks. Thank you for asking me to participate in this committee.