Transport committee  You just threw a lot of stuff at me. First of all, we as an air taxi industry don't have SMS in place yet, so I don't think I can speak to that. Definitely, with regard to oversight, I think that was the intention, but what we're contending is that the oversight under our present system, which is flawed, is non-existent.

Transport committee  No, it was various departments in Transport Canada. We can't single out an agency. It is the agency; it's the entire thing.

Transport committee  [Inaudible--Editor]...our business. So our fate rides on the hand of the government—

Transport committee  As I was saying, our right to operate, to earn an income, and to recoup some of our hefty investment in our company is in the hands of the government, and the government has the ultimate power to take it away or to modify it or to restrict our right to operate. Apparently, as we found out, they have the right to modify documents outside the standards at their own whim and fancy.

Transport committee  No, I understand. You're trying to get to the bottom. As I mentioned a little earlier, when we went to get our certification for our company, we were probably close to the day we were scheduled to operate, and we had been trying for months to get to mediation, because there was a discrepancy over policy versus regulation.

Transport committee  I'm sorry. Can you...?

Transport committee  We don't know of any other operators like ours that have that kind of system in place. A test project was done on a few operators not representative of the entire air taxi industry. With respect to the airlines, even though that's not within our purview, I would have to defer to what Mr.

Transport committee  I can assure you that if there are any threats of reprisal, the whole world will know about it, and I appreciate your concern.

Transport committee  Let me just clarify a small point. When you shrink us down like that as “smaller operators”...our companies may be one- and two-airplane operators, but our size as an industry on the air taxi and the AMO side far outweighs the size of the airline industry and the commuters. We contribute more to the gross domestic product than those airlines, whose incomes and profits all go offshore.

Transport committee  If you look at the division of the CARs and how it is structured, you will see that each and every section of the CARs is very different. The air taxi, the aerial work, the private operators, the airlines, and commuters are all very different, which is why they've been given their own regulatory structure.

Transport committee  You could say that.

Transport committee  We're not suggesting anything on anybody else's behalf. As our own selves, as an air taxi operator, we can only offer you our own perspective. And as we've stated, we feel that SMS is a good business tool, but it's not something you can legislate into making an industry think safely.

Transport committee  We've experienced reprisal in a small way all along since we started our company, in that, not having an arbitrator to take our concerns to when there was an issue over policy versus law, we were threatened. Initially we were told we would not be granted our certificate.

Transport committee  Well, when you have sunk all your money into purchasing and insuring and repairing an airplane in preparation for launch.... We were applying for certification for our company, and of course we were trying to follow procedures and the letter of the law in order to meet the standard to get our certificate.

Transport committee  Yes, it is. Our difficulty with the present system is that if you go to Vancouver or Saint John, or if you go to Victoria or Red Lake, you should have an equal and fair interpretation of the regulations. Right now what's happening is that each little area and each inspector have their own interpretation, which involves the creation of policy to, I guess, enforce it with the carriers.