Canadian Senate and foreign pilots

[Gilles Hudicourt]

http://www.canada.com/business/Canadian ... story.html

OTTAWA — Airlines are increasingly hiring temporary foreign workers to fly planes rather than investing in training, which could “seriously impede” the industry’s ability to expand, stifle competition and increase prices for Canadian flyers, a Senate committee says.

That warning from the transportation committee, contained in a report released Wednesday, urged the federal government to take a more active role in regulating air travel, including ensuring that foreign pilots hired to fly Canadian routes “meet all safety, security and professional requirements.”

The report paints a portrait of an industry where airport, airline, pilot and government interests conflict at times. Canada ranks 125th out of 139 countries in terms of affordability for air travel, according to the World Economic Forum.

The federal government’s interest in milking airports for millions in tax revenues without enough reinvestment in airport infrastructure will continue to translate into higher fees for travellers, the Senate report argues.

“If you consider airports as a source of revenue, you’ll never solve the problem of (airline) costs in Canada,” said Sen. Dennis Dawson, chair of the committee. “These are taxes that are bringing in major revenues to the government and it’s not reinvesting in the industry.”

He said that part of the problem is that transport ministers haven’t stood up to their finance counterparts. Until that happens, “we’ll never be competitive,” Dawson said in an interview.

“The government considers airports as a source of revenue rather than a source of development, which is exactly the opposite of what’s done in the United States,” Dawson said.

The report also calls for a national air travel strategy that takes into account growth in the North — a focus of the Harper government — where, it argues, increased competition without additional investment in airport infrastructure may drive up seat prices.

The demand for pilots worldwide is expected to reach 50,000 pilots per year by 2030, while training centres will have capacity to train about 47,000 annually, according to the report.

For airlines, using the temporary foreign worker program — now under scrutiny over reports that RBC outsourced Canadian jobs under the program — was a way of “taking advantage of certain federal programs to reduce their costs.”

“It’s a real issue,” Dawson said. “Instead of training Canadian pilots to take over their planes … it’s cheaper for them to hire pilots from elsewhere.”

Canada isn’t expected to be affected by pilot shortages, but a crunch may come as fewer people decide to become pilots and avoid the almost $70,000 needed to pay for training in an industry where the starting salary is low.

“They’re not getting any kind of funding or government support or any encouragement from these companies to get training to fly,” Dawson said.

“The pilots’ associations that came before (the committee) said this is a major flaw.”

A spokesman for Transport Minister Denis Lebel said Transport Canada is looking into the rules surrounding the use of foreign pilots.

“Foreign pilots, just like Canadian pilots, go through a rigorous selection process in order to ensure they are fully qualified,” said spokesman Mike Winterburn. “Officials are currently reviewing this policy to see if reform is needed.”

The recommendations in the latest report echo an earlier report the Senate committee released where it urged the government to reconsider its role in air travel and airports to bring down the cost of an airline ticket and stop the flow of Canadians choosing to fly out of the United States rather than a domestic airport. At the time of the June 2102 report, about 4.2 million Canadians were estimated to have flown from an American airport since the start of 2012.

That number is now estimated to be about five million, according to Wednesday’s report, and the economic loss to Canada is estimated to be almost 9,000 jobs, and $190 million in lost tax revenues.

The June report argued the government saw airports as revenue generators rather than spark plugs for economic development, with the cost being passed on to consumers. Wednesday’s report argues that the government needs to break with its “one size fits all” approach to regulating the industry, which have been implemented without acknowledging unique circumstances in the North where gravel runways and smaller villages make it difficult to implement rules without great cost or hurting service.

The committee noted that northern airlines subsidize less-travelled routes through more revenues and premiums on higher-travelled routes. More competition on higher-travelled, north-south routes may reduce prices for those flights, at the expense of driving up prices on less-travelled, intra-North routes.

“The committee believes that any efforts to increase competition in northern and remote regions must be applied with caution,” the report reads. “In these regions, the focus should be on improving the essential infrastructure needed to make the air industry more efficient.”

© Copyright (c) Postmedia News

[rudder]

Congratulations Gilles.

You took an issue that many wanted to keep off the radar screen and put it squarely in the public and now legislative focus.

Some operators can kiss status quo goodbye. Change is coming.

[Scuba_Steve]

Wow, it's not just a self interested Group of Air Transat pilots calling bullshit on the TFW program.....ass rope et'al must be frothing at the mouth....

I'm glad to see the fruits of Gilles labour coming to fruition, though this senate committee was likely influenced by Dan Adamas and other reps who spoke at the senate transportation committee last year..

Cheers

[Cat Driver]

..ass rope et'al must be frothing at the mouth....

Actually we should not get too upset over what anyone going by the name of ass rope thinks.

Unless of course you are all for flying on an airline where you hear....

Good evening ladies and gentlemen this is captain ass rope speaking, our flying time to London Heathrow this evening will be nine hours and fifty five minutes............................................

[Flytoy]

http://montreal.ctvnews.ca/transat-coul ... -1.1224781

[Gilles Hudicourt]

Here is the link to the Senate Report itself:

http://www.parl.gc.ca/Content/SEN/Commi ... pr13-e.pdf

The growing trend among Canadian airlines to bring in foreign pilots was another long-term human resource challenge that
was discussed over the course of the study. The Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA) suggested that rather than using the labour market to fill personnel shortages, some Canadian air carriers are taking advantage of certain federal programs to reduce their costs. Human Resources and Skills Development Canada’s Temporary Foreign Worker Program was cited in this respect. This program “enables employers to hire foreign workers on a temporary basis to fill immediate skills and labour shortages, when Canadian citizens and permanent residents are not available to do the job.” The ALPA is of the opinion that some airlines companies are hiring pilots under this program, fully knowing that Canadian pilots are available for the jobs. Doing so effectively allows these airlines to hire foreign pilots at better rates and eliminates any costs that they may incur from training Canadian pilots on various models of aircrafts. One example brought to the committee’s attention saw one airline that normally has 155 pilots and 10 aircraft bring in 200 additional pilots and 19 aircraft from abroad. According to Captain Adamus from the Air Line Pilots Association:

"we have pilots who are on the street and aregoing to be using our social programs to supplement their income, and we have foreign pilots coming in that are not paying Canadian income tax or contributing to our social programs, there is an issue"

It is essential to ensure the viability of the Canadian airlines that the federal government look at the sector’s need for qualified personal. A lack of qualified individuals could seriously impede the air transport industry’s future capacity to expand, thus further reducing competition in this sector.

Recommendation:
The committee urges Canadian air carriers to support the training and long term development of Canadian pilots and recommends that Transport Canada ensures that foreign pilots employed by Canadian air carriers, meet all safety, security and professional requirements.

[BE20 Driver]

The cynic in me wants to know what exactly the senate will do to "support the training and long term development of Canadian pilots."

You can wear a ribbon that says support our troops but is this actually accomplishing anything?

[Gilles Hudicourt]

Well I wrote to them to tell them that if they want Transport Canada to "ensure(s) that foreign pilots employed by Canadian air carriers, meet all safety, security and professional requirements" they should begin by asking Transport Canada to make sure that all foreign pilots who are employed by Canadian carriers comply with CAR 705.106(1)(a).

[slowstream]

Gilles,

Thanks for posting that and your continued fight for pilots in Canada!

It was nice to read that but I am also painfully aware of how ineffective Government is and can be. Changes could still be many years away and no I am not trying to be a pessimist just a realist.

I found it interesting the comparison between the U.S & Canada, but there is such a huge mind set difference between the two when it comes to issues like that and the typically the Canadian Government (regardless of party) has always been such control freaks that I don't see it changing any time soon.

On the flip side, the report is out in paper, in print, now I believe comes the time of importance for everyone to keep up the pressure.

Maybe BE20 has a good idea, wear ribbons, maybe the unions could spend a few of our dollars and make some pins and do some advertising to drum up additional support, yes?