Transport committee  Good afternoon. Thank you for the opportunity to speak to you this afternoon. My name is Greg Holbrook. I am the national chair of the Canadian Federal Pilots Association. The CFPA represents approximately 375 licensed pilots employed by Transport Canada as civil aviation inspe

Transport committee  None whatsoever, sir. We're completely independent.

Transport committee  Well, sir, I will be completely honest with you and say that it was Mr. Preuss.

Transport committee  He is the director general of civil aviation.

Transport committee  No, I didn't. I was on the road at the time. I got the message from my assistant that this call had been placed to my office. I replied immediately to her and told her to please phone back and indicate that I would be appearing by myself and that there would be no TC inspectors a

Transport committee  Yes.

Transport committee  No, I haven't had time to distribute that information throughout our membership.

Transport committee  They weren't asked to appear. If they were asked, I think they would be quite reluctant to do so for fear of what might happen to them in their employment situations.

Transport committee  The documents talking about the reduction in inspectors refer to demographic studies done both in the public service and by the department itself that expect up to 40% to 50% of the inspectorate will be eligible for retirement over the next few years, so that creates a potential

Transport committee  Those reductions in personnel will not be directly as a result of this bill. I think the initiatives contained in this bill are part of the plan by Transport Canada to deal with lack of personnel and no program to recruit and replace those individuals.

Transport committee  We see section 5.31 as enabling complete delegation to establish safety standards and the monitoring of compliance with those safety standards to all sectors of the industry, not just small or large operators. The way we understand it, that provision will provide for that capabil

Transport committee  As reflected in our survey, 92% of our membership believes that SMS is a good concept. Our message here today is that it's the application and changeover to a different program of oversight that is the issue. A lot of the initiatives Mr. Boucher referred to as promoting safety c

Transport committee  I can't speak to what Mr. Preuss's intentions were.

Transport committee  My understanding of the comment was that it would not have been seen favourably by Transport Canada if any active inspectors appeared before this committee.

Transport committee  As a result, I looked at it from the perspective that I am the only individual who can share this message with you gentlemen, so that you can have it available to—