ICAO audit

[Hornblower]

Just to be clear, the ICAO audit results are not so indicative of the safety of aviation in Canada, as they are of Canada's compliance with the Convention or ICAO SARPs. It has more to do with Canada's inability to make timely regulatory and policy changes that incorporate those things within the Civ Av regulatory structure in Canada. There are many reasons for this, not just the incompetence of the national regulator; although certainly a factor.

On a side note, the other thread on this subject, rapidly devolved into an unintelligible argument over an entirely unrelated subject. Those involved should consider applying for Jobs at TCCA where their inability to understand and react appropriately to new information would be highly prised!

[Dry Guy]

The ICAO audit and the new UN report are separate things I believe.

[Big Pistons Forever]

Just to be clear, the ICAO audit results are not so indicative of the safety of aviation in Canada, as they are of Canada's compliance with the Convention or ICAO SARPs. It has more to do with Canada's inability to make timely regulatory and policy changes that incorporate those things within the Civ Av regulatory structure in Canada. There are many reasons for this, not just the incompetence of the national regulator; although certainly a factor.

There is a long standing and well understood link between regulatory compliance and safety. Some African, South American and now recently Russia, are case studies in what happens over time when operators are not held responsible for following internationally recognized regulatory standards. The ICAO audit is devastating as its bottom line is that Canada has not been maintaining the regulatory framework and effective oversight of the Canadian Aviation Industry. The fact that there hasn’t been any front page accidents lately doesn’t mean
aviation is safe, just lucky.

I should not understate the importance of the many operators who understand the long term value of safe operations and behave accordingly but the Regulator should be the entity that keeps everyone honest. The ICAO score of 62% puts Canada in the bottom third of the World. To provide perspective the audit before Canada’s was for Tanzania. It got a score of 85% which made it fourth in Africa.

The ICAO report is the regulator equivalent of a having the fire warn light still on after blowing both bottles and the FA reports of visible flames visually confirmed

[Hornblower]

You are conflating regulatory compliance (by civil aircraft operations) and the country's ability to meet a longstanding international agreement that Canada signed up for; two separate things. Nobody has drawn any meaningful statistical parallels between Canada's aviation accident data and Canada's inability to put regulations and policies in place that reflect international agreement standards that may, or may not, actually be applicable to our civil aviation landscape or legal system. And I'm not saying that we shouldn't do better in this area, but am stopping short of saying it amounts to gross safety concerns.

I'm just putting forward the idea that our 62% rating is not the harbinger of death that you seem to be indicating it is.