Transport committee  Happily, and I apologize for the confusion on this. In the 2019 budget, the government announced a plan to transition CATSA, the air travel security agency, from a Crown corporation into a not-for-profit corporation that would run essentially like a co-op. It is essentially replicating the model that we did for air navigation services quite some time ago.

Transport committee  As we've seen over the past hour with the questions to and discussions with the Minister of Transport, this is an area of significant discussion and significant work. It is one of the key issues in the air sector, and there's a significant impact on Canadians. I'd say two things.

Transport committee  The member raises a really good question. In the process of understanding some of the extreme impacts on the sector and advising the government on options for addressing them, the department is in pretty well constant contact with a wide range of air operators and airports. We have seen exactly the dynamic the member is describing.

Transport committee  Thank you for the question. Again, it's a very important question and a very important issue. Increasingly, you can see that particularly in air travel. There's also the goods land travel, but in the air travel system, the world is edging its way towards some kind of system where testing will be a part of international air travel.

Public Accounts committee  Madam Chair, I'll start. We have an action plan to respond to the audits, but it's the plan that is actually published in the CESD's audit itself. We're working diligently to deliver on the commitments described in that plan.

Public Accounts committee  Madam Chair, we'd be happy to get the answers back as quickly as we can.

Public Accounts committee  Thank you, and goodbye.

Public Accounts committee  Any fines related to safety and safety violations are administered by delegated officials in Transport Canada. One of the areas we've taken to strengthen our enforcement is that we've created a dedicated enforcement unit that has specialized skills to carry out investigations that are necessary for the bigger fines and the bigger violations.

Public Accounts committee  Over a number of years, there has been an increase in the number of fines. At the same time, in general, we see a decrease in the risk and an improvement in the safety performance. The reason for that is that we brought in systems. We don't have them in TDG yet. In rail safety and other areas, we brought in systems whereby we can do administrative monetary penalties.

Public Accounts committee  That's a great question. That would have been under the Railway Safety Act and rail safety, but it's exactly that. When we see a violation, we issue an order and usually they have to tell us how they're going to fix it, then fix it, and then we inspect the fix. That goes back to the point that other members have raised about improving our follow-up.

Public Accounts committee  In recent years, Transport Canada has, in several rounds, strengthened the rules on the securement of unattended trains. Offhand I don't have the statistics on unattended trains and dangerous goods, but a train can be unattended for some period of time in the course of a journey.

Public Accounts committee  Yes, there are. Part of the strengthening of oversight was the strengthening of enforcement. Whenever we have any information or any observation from an inspection that an unattended train was improperly secured or there was an unintentional movement of a train, we take action.

Public Accounts committee  I think the administrative monetary penalty was for one railcar, and it was a $33,000 penalty.

Public Accounts committee  Sure. That's a great question. As we expanded our inspectorate and brought more folks online to carry out the oversight program, we went from 30 inspectors to about 130 inspectors. All but 99% of them we put in the regions, because that's where the activity is. They're in the Skeena subdivision, in Smithers; they're in the Sherbrooke subdivision, around Sherbrooke and Lac-Mégantic, and all across the country.

Public Accounts committee  I can only agree with you and the minister from the region on the impact and the devastation of the tragedy at Lac-Mégantic. In terms of this issue, you are absolutely right: the CESD did note it was 30%. That is too high. If he examined that today, he would find a rate that is way below 30%.