The Canadian Owners and Pilots Association

The Canadian Owners and Pilots Association, on behalf of people who own and fly aircraft for personal travel and recreation, calls for a General Aviation Policy for Canada. Our review of government policies revealed that although Transport Canada has several policies dealing with aviation, they are narrowly focused on airlines when in fact the vast majority of the aircraft, airports and personnel that contribute to the economic engine of Canada are in General Aviation.

                 Any Canadian Air Policy must consider the needs of the vast General Aviation sector and therefore it is hoped from the following presentation that the government will create a policy for General Aviation.

 Background

                 General Aviation is all flying in Canada that is neither airline nor military. By Transport Canada’s own statistics this sector of aviation accounts for 29,762 of the nation’s 30,873 aircraft (September 2006 data) which is 96% of the aircraft in Canada. This multi-billion dollar portion of the aviation industry contributes to the economy in the following ways: 

1.                  Pilot training for the future of the airline industry

2.                  Agricultural flying to maximize the productivity of the agricultural industry

3.                  Bush flying operations serving Canada’s remote communities and providing transportation for the multi-billion dollar tourism industry

4.                  Medical evacuation and patient transfer

5.                  Aviation maintenance

6.                  Aviation maintenance training

7.                  Corporate and business flying

8.                  Personal travel and recreation

9.                  Aviation tourism – foreign and domestic

10.              Aerial survey and mapping

11.              Aerial photography

12.              Forest fire fighting

13.              Civil search and rescue

14.              Heli-skiing

15.              Mineral exploration and support

16.              Forest management

17.              Wildlife surveys and management

18.              Aerial avalanche control

19.              Aerial construction

20.              Aviation research and development

21.              Aerospace manufacturing

22.              Pipeline and powerline patrol

23.              Helicopter logging

24.              Many other economic activities using aircraft  

Current Transport Canada Policy Statements and Publications 

A visitor to the Air Policy section of the Transport Canada website will quickly see that there are policy documents that address many airline issues and also rents and leases for the major 26 airports in Canada. The National Airports Policy focuses on those 26 major airports in Canada and has little to say about non-airline aviation. There are no policies relating to the rest of the aviation industry. 

            From this review of current Transport Canada air policy, it is not clear whether General Aviation has been just forgotten or whether it is being actively ignored. 

It seems odd that Transport Canada would have no policy at all for a sector of aviation that is solely regulated by Transport Canada, operates 96% of the aircraft registered in Canada, includes hundreds of flying and maintenance schools, employs hundreds of thousands of people, adds billions of dollars to the Canadian economy and provides transportation services to Canadians that no other form of transportation does or is capable of providing.  

Why is there no federal government policy statement on the value of General Aviation to Canada to guide the government in planning for and dealing with this vast Canadian resource? 

 A Historical Perspective 

            Canada has not always been without a policy for General Aviation. We found some statements made by previous governments that acknowledged that it was largely transportation that built this nation and that providing transportation links in this vast nation are important to keep it thriving. 

            In the period between the two World Wars, Canada’s transportation vision was solidly focussed on aviation as a builder of the nation, in the same way that the railways had been critical in nation building before the First World War. 

The government of the day formed the Air Board to oversee all aviation in Canada, including military aviation. Under the Air Board Canada was mapped in detail from the air, a national network of airports was built, air services were established, personal aviation supported, remote communities linked to the rest of Canada and civil pilots were trained with government support. The unifying work of the Air Board was driven by a solid policy that understood that the existence, promotion and government support of all sectors of aviation, including non-airline aviation, was in the Canadian public interest. 

This broad government support of all forms of aviation led to a nation with a great expertise in aviation. When the Second World War started, Canada’s greatest contribution was to be what Franklin Delano Roosevelt termed the “Aerodrome of Democracy”, the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan (BCATP). Aircrew from almost all allied nations trained in Canada under instructors largely recruited from that pool of Canadians who had learned to fly in the inter-war period. Canada had become the most “air-minded” nation on earth and the BCATP contributed strongly to the defeat of the Axis powers as a result.

After the war ended the government continued with a strong General Aviation policy, providing financial support for Canadians who learned to fly. Until the end of the 1950s any Canadian who completed a Private Pilot Licence had one third of the cost reimbursed by the federal government. The government of the day felt that this was a good investment as it encouraged Canadians to become pilots – supplying the RCAF and the airlines with pilots and also ensuring that in a national emergency the nation had the pilots to provide emergency airlift anywhere in the country.  

By the 1960s that long-held vision of aviation in Canada shifted. No longer was the federal government of the day willing to support all sectors of aviation. Instead the airlines received strong and direct financial support, while the rest of aviation bore an increasing burden of regulations and costs, without any policy to illustrate that the government had a vision for non-airline aviation in Canada. There was no policy to even answer basic questions such as: how many airports, flying schools and aircraft do we as a nation need to be competitive, does the government want an aerospace manufacturing industry in Canada, etc? 

Unfortunately current air policy, including the National Airports Policy, continues that lack of a national General Aviation policy into the 21^st century. 

Challenges 

            All sectors of aviation are facing serious challenges to their continued existence. Some of the issues that most affect General Aviation currently include: 

1.                  A crumbling national airport infrastructure system that has proven not to be sustainable by user fees and other meagre sources of funding. 

2.                  An excessively high government regulatory burden that is seriously hurting the competitiveness and viability of the entire Canadian aviation industry (including the aerospace manufacturing industry, airport operators sector, aviation maintenance industry and commercial, business and private aircraft operators) in comparison to Canada’s foreign competitors, particularly the US.  

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