Agriculture committee  I think it is fair to say that it is unique, and I guess in that sense extraordinary. Yes, sir.

Agriculture committee  No, sir, not to my knowledge. For instance, with the shipping of dangerous goods, which is something that we undertake regularly, there is a paperwork component to the job; however, the responsibility lies with the shipper and regulator to ensure completion and compliance.

Agriculture committee  Again, I would really like to preface my answer with the fact that this is not the type of aircraft that I am personally trained on. It's something in the neighbourhood of 50,000 to 70,000 kilograms, or something like that.

Agriculture committee  It really does depend, sir, on the type of aircraft and the load that was being carried. It varies drastically based on what the total cargo weight is.

Agriculture committee  I will remain silent on the merits of the bill, simply because I'm not personally an expert, nor is our organization. However, our comments as presented in my testimony are very specific, and if those changes were made, we would have no further objections specific to the bill, notwithstanding what I just said about not being an organizational or personal expert.

Agriculture committee  It's a wide range of aircraft, but the aircraft that are most commonly configured for cargo configuration in Canada that could accept live animals are Boeing 767 aircraft and Boeing 757 aircraft. There are others, but those are the aircraft that are most commonly used in Canada for the purposes of air cargo.

Agriculture committee  It would depend on how the flight was planned. It is possible to connect those two destinations with a direct flight, but I would have to look to how any particular flights in question were planned and operated. I would be happy to do so, but at this time I would be speculating as to which city pairs were being utilized for this particular purpose.

Agriculture committee  I'd have to look at exactly when we were first notified. I can let you know in writing, sir. However, I can confirm that the airline pilots were not consulted for this bill. I think this aspect of the bill reflects that.

Agriculture committee  Thank you very much, Chair. Good morning. My name is Tim Perry. I am a professional pilot and have been for over 21 years. I'm a 737 captain at WestJet Airlines. I am currently the president of ALPA Canada, which is the Canadian division of the Air Line Pilots Association, International.

Transport committee  I think it's important that any barrier to have a pilot enter or re-enter the market as an employee has to be addressed. Whether it's a pilot certificate or a medical certificate, we've seen delays, but much like my colleague at CATCA, we find that those have actually been improving.

Transport committee  Sure. Thank you for the question. A wet lease is when a company leases not only an aircraft but a flight crew as well. Often all of the associated expenses are covered in a single transaction rather than by leasing an aircraft and hiring a crew separately. If this is done improperly, it can disrupt the labour market and undermine collective bargaining for unionized groups, because it's basically contracting out what could be—and in some cases, should be—work that belongs to the bargaining unit.

Transport committee  We have commented extensively on this transaction. Our position has been that as long as there are no layoffs that come with this transaction, it's something we could support. As an organization, we're not opposed to the amalgamation of different businesses as long as there are appropriate labour protections in place.

Transport committee  Yes, we would certainly like to see restrictions on wet leasing, as well as no layoffs and other labour protections.

Transport committee  Thank you very much for the question. I think it's well worth noting the extraordinary effort by this government that went into stabilizing the economy and stabilizing the lives of Canadians. That does not go unnoticed by anybody—not by me and not by our organization. My point was about the specialized funding, which I believe would have been helpful and which was missing.

Transport committee  Thank you very much for the question. I think you raised an excellent point. If we're going to take a step back and realize that there is a tightening labour market for pilots and we're going to think strategically about it, we can't be closing flight schools or impeding them from training pilots.