At the CARAC table – 2005 plenary session

By Adam Hunt

About once a year Transport Canada holds a plenary session of the Canadian Aviation Regulation Advisory Committee (CARAC). This is a gathering of everyone involved in the CARAC process.

CARAC is the forum where changes to the CARs are publicly consulted with industry, the public and associations like COPA.

The plenary session is generally a one day meeting which deals with the big issues including how CARAC is run, the CARAC Charter and issues which affect all nine technical committees of CARAC.

This year the plenary was held on May 19, 2005 at the Ottawa Congress Centre. It was well attended by industry and association representatives - COPA was the only organization representing non-commercial aviation and pilots.

Much of the plenary this year was taken up with reports on the status of CARAC working groups, progress reports on Notices of Proposed Amendments to the CARs (NPAs) and reports from the various TC Directors on upcoming regulatory initiatives expected in the next year.

It was announced the ultralight passenger-carrying rating rules would be published in the CARs on Dec. 1, 2005 and would take effect on Dec. 31, 2006. The extra year delay is to give TC the opportunity to train the pilot examiners who will administer the new rating.

There were also TC presentations on the new on-line TC NPA database and tracking system and the CARAC regulatory steps involved in changing a CAR. TC Risk Assessment procedures were outlined and it was emphasized that TC will do formal risk assessments on all changes to the CARs which are proposed with the exception of those that harmonize Canadian rules with the FAA or ICAO, old NPAs that are already making their way through the system and have passed CARAC, changes that are strictly editorial or administrative (such as spelling corrections) and changes to the CARs that are directed by the Minister of Transport.

When asked about whether Canadian regulations can deviate from ICAO requirements, TC Director General Civil Aviation, Merlin Preuss said, “We don’t have to follow everything ICAO does, especially if it is stupid.”

This statement gave some reassurance to many industry representatives who have seen regulatory initiatives that have come from ICAO and have been considered inapplicable or incompatible with aviation in Canada, but nevertheless have resulted in changes to the CARs anyway.

A number of minor changes to the CARAC Charter were presented and passed by the members.

After lunch the agenda was taken up with business presented by the industry members of CARAC. First on the agenda was the COPA initiative asking TC to do more to make the CARs easier to understand, as the U.S. FAA has been doing with the FARs.

This initiative was reported in the April COPA Flight issue, “Are plane language regulations coming to the CARs?” COPA has received a great deal of positive feedback on this initiative from COPA members, other aviation associations and also from individual TC officials.

Preuss responded to this COPA proposal by saying, within the bounds established by the regulatory rules of the Department of Justice and The Statutory Instruments Act, TC would try to make future changes to the CARs clearer and easier for Canadians to understand.

The Air Line Pilots Association International represented by Art Laflamme, presented agenda items to TC on the lack of observed quality of work in recent NPAs, the length of time to process amendments and the role of acting technical committee chairs.

When asked about “prescriptive” versus “performance-based” regulations Preuss stated, “The policy of Transport Canada is to write performance-based regulations, so if you see one (presented in an NPA at CARAC technical committee) that isn’t, let us know.”

The meeting ended with time for feedback from the participants and then closing remarks from Merlin Preuss.