Public Accounts committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. They're very brief, actually. In the interest of making sure that committee members have as much time as they'd like to ask questions, my opening remarks from our first hearing were distributed to all the members. With that, I'll just tell you that we're happy to answer any questions members might have.

Transport committee  I can absolutely make recommendations to the Canadian Transportation Agency—

Transport committee  —as we have, but I cannot recommend policy. That's for policy-makers. I look at how policy is implemented and put in place by federal organizations. When it came to the Canadian Transportation Agency, we made a few around their inspections and better access to data. When it came to inspections, we found that many of them were just looking at the design of an inspection.

Transport committee  I hope we've taken good notes. I'll start off with the first question. I cannot make recommendations to airlines. They are not a part of the federal government. My mandate stops and starts with auditing the federal government and Crown corporations, which is why Via Rail—

Transport committee  The current regulation does require training to happen within 60 days of someone beginning their role, and then a refresh every three years. The answer, honestly, on how often it should happen is that it depends. Because there's such constant turnover, and you would hope there are folks moving to different roles and different positions, there is likely a need for training on a much more regular basis than just once every three years.

Transport committee  I guess to explain my mandate a little, I cannot audit private corporations, and airlines are exactly that. While they are federally regulated, I can only look at federal entities. In our audit of the transportation authority, we did not look at fines levied. We looked at the oversight and inspection of the regulations.

Transport committee  No. We did not cover that.

Transport committee  There's so much to do in the area of accessibility. We'll take it under advisement, absolutely, but this was our first chance looking at it, since the accessibility act was so new. It's definitely on the horizon to revisit at some point.

Transport committee  Mr. Chair, thank you for this opportunity to discuss the findings of our audit of accessible transportation for persons with disabilities, which was tabled in the House of Commons in March 2023. I would like to acknowledge that this hearing is taking place on the traditional unceded territory of the Algonquin Anishinabe people.

Public Accounts committee  Not to my knowledge, no.

Public Accounts committee  It's my understanding that anyone can refer a matter to law enforcement, but typically we wait for law enforcement to ask us for a production order to provide evidence.

Public Accounts committee  I can't comment on whether it's common practice. I can tell you that we saw it in some of the samples we looked at where the contract called for 10 years or more of experience and the individual who performed the work was not that way. But there is a mechanism in place in the public service when an individual who's put forward under a contract or task authorization needs to be switched.

Public Accounts committee  The concern was raised between the first non-competitive contract and the second one, based on the times.

Public Accounts committee  If I may, Mr. Chair, I should have finished. There was a second contract awarded to GC Strategies on June 29, 2020.

Public Accounts committee  It was related to, obviously, the second one, the one that was issued on June 29. It was, again, a non-competitive contract. There were three non-competitive contracts issued to GC Strategies before the competitive process took place.