Transport committee  I'm Dave Dawson, also from Transport Canada, airport policy group.

Transport committee  As I said, in 2001 it was taken off the market, and it came back on the market at a very high rate. Since that time, it has come down, but through our reports we deem it to still be at a rate that doesn't make it feasible for the airlines, combined with their own insurance, to op

Transport committee  The domestic market all have their own insurance.

Transport committee  We currently have a program in place. Currently, an airline has to have $150 million, and the other players in the air industry have $50 million. Government covers the rest.

Transport committee  Yes. In the instance where we are asking a plane to go on Canada's behalf.... Is that the example you're...? Yes, then it is sort of a blessing: you are covered, go.

Transport committee  It's a contingency. I want to repeat that. The industry has to purchase on the market its own insurance up to a certain level, and the government has stepped in with the current program because it's deemed that the amounts of the market rates aren't feasible for the industry. Als

Transport committee  The key word here is that it's a contingent liability, so it's in place. Assuming there is an event, the person who is harmed brings forward a claim, and that claim is assessed as to whether or not it's valid. Then the process would be, as for any other insurance claim, to look a

Transport committee  It's done after the fact.

Transport committee  That was what I was trying to outline in the case where the government wants to send a jet into a place to bring out some Canadian citizens or something. It's a contingency. It's there if something happens. It's there if needed. Then if something did happen, all of the money woul

Transport committee  In 2001, as I described in my paper, the industry withdrew. It slowly came back, but the costs are still quite high and it's difficult for the air industry participants to obtain this insurance at a reasonable rate. The other factor is that this has been going along with the ro

Transport committee  —that would drive this?

Transport committee  No.

Transport committee  It's just been dragging on.

Transport committee  There's a program in place right now, for instance, and if this bill passes and we go live January 1, 2015 or 2016, let's say we pick some numbers, and we say industry must pay for the first $100 million and then everything after that.... That's given today's conditions. If the

Transport committee  They think it's the right idea going forward.