Transport committee  What we do is we set a national risk-based inspection cycle for the program validation inspections. Those are implemented on a planned basis, cyclically. Those are the big inspections that cover a lot of elements of a company. Then we have triggers for a whole series of other kinds of process inspections and other types of inspections, some of which are similar to the traditional inspections.

Transport committee  One of the recommendations dealt with this issue in terms of how to make our process faster. This was a considerable focus of attention in 2012, for example. We looked at how the consultation process had become, as you say, somewhat formalized and process heavy, if you will. You typically have more than 500 participants, particularly at a plenary session, and the question is whether all of those participants actually have a key interest in the issue.

Transport committee  The category that we call process inspections and the general category of inspections cover the kinds of traditional inspection activities, if you will. Now that's probably not a very good reference in the sense of what period was traditional—five years ago, ten years ago, etc.—but generally speaking, it covered the areas where an inspector would visit a site of an aircraft company or an air carrier or perhaps a ramp inspection at an airport.

Transport committee  In general, there's a whole variety of recommendations, some of which required some engineering work, some research to look at the right solution, what's technologically available, the implications of putting that into the industry and a significant amount of discussion on what this idea would look like translated into impact.

Transport committee  An investigation is under way, both from our current terms in a regulatory sense and from the Transportation Safety Board's review. The degree to which I'd be able to comment on that is fairly limited. A system is in place for all changes with regard to single person train operation or other major changes in operation, and the company is required to do risk assessments before any major change.

Transport committee  I'll give a very quick overview, first of all, and then turn to Mr. Bourdon for rail. We have a very robust program with national aircraft certification processes whereby those types of activities are carried on, and we have very robust arrangements in place to look at how the aircraft are certified and the aircraft producers' time periods recommended for maintenance, time periods for the kind of checks to address those issues.

Transport committee  The two things occurred in parallel, if you will. One is the inspection changes. We took what was the national audit program and made it a key part of our program validation inspection approach. It morphed into that. That is our scheduled inspection. We have SMS assessments that also go on for our industry on a cyclical basis.

Transport committee  Are you looking at the rail industry or generally?

Transport committee  Just to step back a slight bit in terms of the approach we have, most of the modes have systems whereby the individuals who are working in a company certainly can and do call an inspector and let them know of any concerns they have. We have a formalized system for this in the CADORS database system that we have in civil aviation, whereby many people, including employees, can make those kinds of reports.

Transport committee  The trend is extremely stable. I'd have to look at all the different elements, but generally speaking, there has been no significant change in the different components as a total of oversight and inspector-type positions. A variety of individuals in each program has inspection authorities.

Transport committee  It'll be by fall, as said, so we're keeping very close track of these commitments.

Transport committee  Yes, this is an issue that had actually arisen before the audit recommendations were made, so work had been already well under way in that regard. As a complete process within all of Transport Canada, decisions have been made to require conflict of interest statements from all our employees, both at the executive level and at the inspector level, who are in areas of safety sensitivity and who potentially might be more vulnerable or more in question if there were issues.

Transport committee  Thank you very much for the question. I know that it is a bit difficult, because terminology has evolved and there are definitely lexicon issues. To give you a very brief history of the evolution, before 2005 Transport Canada conducted inspections and audits. There was a national safety audit program that brought together specialists from each of the silos to carry out a bit of an overview of the company systems.

Transport committee  I don't think I have that specific a detail for you, but the security regime that's put in place is driven by—

Transport committee  I would suspect that I can't give you that kind of breakdown, because you're talking about individual passengers who have one or two bags; they have different clothes; they may be in a wheelchair; they may have a backpack—