By Lisa Gordon | November 23, 2016 Estimated reading time 7 minutes, 20 seconds.
Three major issues were top of mind at the Air Transport Association of Canada (ATAC) annual conference and tradeshow, held Nov. 15 to 17 in Vancouver, B.C.
About 400 delegates and 50 exhibiting companies gathered for the three-day show, which included a full slate of committee discussions and networking opportunities.
According to ATAC president John McKenna, one of the group’s biggest concerns remains Transport Canada budget cuts and the resulting lack of service to all sectors of the air transport industry. It’s an issue that has remained front and centre since McKenna took the helm of the association eight years ago.
“In 2010 I organized a symposium in Ottawa about Transport Canada’s level of service,” McKenna told Skies at the conference. “I invited all the major associations to participate in this to identify a series of recommendations to Transport Canada on what they can do to improve levels of service. We came up with 20 recommendations. Only one has been implemented [in the last six years].”
In 2013, he said then-Transport Minister Lisa Raitt asked ATAC to identify “low-hanging fruit,” or changes that could be implemented without legislative amendments. One of the areas ATAC asked her to focus on was manual amendments.
In a flight training sector meeting during the Vancouver conference, ATAC members cited many examples of the sluggish service provided by the regulator, including one company that has waited more than four weeks to have a simple change of address approved in its operations manual.
Other problem areas include excessive wait times to add new aircraft to an operating certificate. Still other schools complained they have been hit with onerous bi-annual program validation inspections (PVIs) while others have not had an inspection in years. To make matters worse, there does not appear to be a single inspection standard across the country, with regional inspectors seemingly interpreting regulations individually.
The declining level of service at Transport Canada leads McKenna to believe that safety management systems will never be implemented in any operator categories other than 705.
“They don’t have the resources,” he said. “They’ve put so many resources into drones; they’re pulling resources away from other areas to do that. There are 600 OC (operating certificate) holders in 703, 702 and 704. How could they possibly start approving safety management systems in 600 companies?”
Another key area of concern for ATAC is the rising cost of doing business.
“There are costs galore in our industry,” grumbled McKenna, who emphasized that aviation in Canada is subject to excessive taxation. “Now, they’re talking about a carbon tax. We’re already paying a hundred million dollars in fuel excise taxes. Are they going to replace that with a carbon tax, or is that just another tax grab in the name of the environment?”
McKenna added that while the Minister of Transport has addressed security and safety issues in the industry, he has yet to hear anyone in that portfolio acknowledge the high costs facing the air transport sector.
“As long as those costs persist in Canada, there will never be a true low-cost carrier,” he predicted.
The third big issue on ATAC’s radar remains the proposed changes to flight and duty times and fatigue risk management. The association takes the position that a well-established safety management system (SMS) is sufficient to address pilot fatigue-related concerns.
McKenna said the regulatory changes as proposed could result in a 30 per cent increase in costs for operators, with the result that some communities could lose air service.
“There has never been an accident or incident in the history of Canadian aviation where fatigue has been identified as a major contributing factor,” said McKenna. “I’m not saying it’s not an issue. But, we have the tools already to deal with that-it’s called SMS. We have about the best safety record in the world; safety management systems are in place at all the big airlines.”
He added that ATAC is promoting SMS across the board for all types of air transport operations. At its own cost, the association developed an SMS that is scalable to the size and complexity of smaller organizations.
“We firmly believe in that,” continued McKenna. “Unfortunately, [many of] the accidents are in the 703 category. They fly in very hostile terrain; they fly in areas where approaches are limited and there isn’t very good weather reporting. They often have older machines and pilots with less experience. But this is all the more reason why SMS should be there.”
Meanwhile, ATAC continues to look for what McKenna calls its “champion” in government.
“I spoke to the deputy minister of finance four or five years ago; we should be considered an enabler of economic development. He said until we have a champion in cabinet to back our cause, his job is to make the budget balance and that’s what he will do. So every time I meet the new minister of transport, I ask if they are the champion who will promote transport in Canada as an economic driver and not as a source of revenue for the government.”
McKenna is hoping the current transport minister, Marc Garneau, will be that champion.
While McKenna spends about 50 per cent of his time dealing with ATAC’s big three issues, the rest of his focus is on administering the association, which includes overseeing the annual conference. This year, he was happy with the attendance and the fact that many companies are sending larger delegations to the show.
He was also pleased that all ATAC members were recognized by Hope Air on the occasion of the charity’s 30th anniversary. According to executive director Doug Keller-Hobson, since it was founded Hope Air has provided 110,000 free flights to Canadians who need to get to specialized medical care. Many of those flights are provided by ATAC members.
In his president’s report at the annual ATAC annual meeting, McKenna said there are still countless things on the association’s to-do list.
As it stands today, ATAC has 182 members (77 operators, 91 industry partners, and 14 affiliates). In 2017, the group’s annual conference moves back to Montreal from Nov. 6 to 8.
