Finance committee  Thanks for the question. With regard to your question, that when you're flying from Montreal to Vancouver you're going through Chicago, that's not a plausible scenario. That would be cabotage over a U.S. gateway, and that is not the market we're looking at. We're competing globally with the passenger that goes from Rio de Janeiro to Tokyo, or from Los Angeles to Frankfurt, over Montreal.

Finance committee  We are proposing that this committee recommend that the Minister of Finance actively seek out and destroy policy barriers to growth and competitiveness in this budget. In short, we agree with this vision for growth and we want in. Merci, monsieur le président.

Finance committee  Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Good morning, Mr. Chairman, and ladies and gentlemen. My name is Sam Barone. I am the President and Chief Executive Officer of the Air Transport Association of Canada, an organization which represents commercial aviation in Canada. Before I begin my formal remarks, Mr.

Transport committee  Mr. Chairman, to reiterate the points that we made in our submission today, we are asking for additional inspections and an additional layer of oversight on site at the premises of airlines. Those additional inspections are combined with the legislative requirement that there be an accountable executive within the company.

Transport committee  Mr. Chairman, in our view, audits will not disappear from this process. Moreover, in addition to the audits, this legislation not only codifies and entrenches the discipline and puts together a framework; the bill insists on airlines and companies under the purview of this bill having an accountable executive that will be personally responsible for ensuring the integrity of this process.

Transport committee  Mr. Chairman, I have a concern with this line of crossing over, in terms of relating to the statement by the honourable member Mr. Bélanger, with respect to a quote that came from the Aerospace Industries Association, which represents aircraft manufacturers. I'm now hearing the statement with respect to airline safety.

Transport committee  Mr. Chairman, one of the concerns I have comes when I hear the word “deregulation”. Deregulation of our industry came primarily in terms of exit and entry, in terms of the economic regulation of the airline industry, if you will. That happened in 1986. However, to say that safety has been deregulated is very misleading.

Transport committee  I would say that's a very fair comment, Mr. Chairman.

Transport committee  Certainly, Mr. Chairman. The French copy will be available tomorrow.

Transport committee  Yes.

Transport committee  I think we have always committed to audits and will continue to commit to audits through this safety management system. It gives a very disciplined, accountable framework under which safety issues have to be addressed, and they can't be altered. This is something we totally agree with.

Transport committee  We have a concern about our safety data being transmitted by e-mail, and to that end we welcome additional on-site inspection. On commercial propriety and the data being transmitted, we have concerns that some of that data should be used for safety purposes only, and not for any other purpose in public use.

Transport committee  It goes to Transport Canada.

Transport committee  We want it to be consistent with other regulatory frameworks with respect to access to information. Sometimes when there is an incident, if it gets released publicly right away without it having any—We cannot promote a psychology of fear in our business. It's not very appropriate, and many times it may be just a small incident that should be investigated, but it should be within—

Transport committee  Inspectors would have access to the data as well as other transmission techniques, but we just aren't confident transmitting our data on safety audits and other sensitive information by e-mail. Les, do you want to elaborate on that and give some specifics?