Air Canada Captain didn't have required license

[oneL]

It begins.

https://tc.canada.ca/en/aviation/refere ... no-2026-09

2. Transport Canada is now reinforcing its approach to validation of all new pilot hires. Operators are expected to ensure that all newly hired flight crew credentials are thoroughly verified and aligned with Transport Canada records prior to commencing operations. This measure is intended to strengthen front-end controls and prevent gaps in the system.

Just got contacted by my soon to be employer that I have to provide a license verification letter from TC. Let’s hope the turn around on this is reasonable as my ground school is supposed to start in less than a month.

Lol. Doesn't it completely defeat the purpose if the candidate has to provide the letter?

What's next, a license verification verification letter?

That's a good point.
Also, I"m wondering how getting TC will handle this: arguably there will increase the workload of TC.
I'm afraid this can only further diminish TC's service standard of 40 working days (8 weeks plus any additional Stat days!). This is especially considering there there are arguably more new-hire situations than there are licence applications.
Someone close to me has been waiting well beyond 40 working days for an initial medical--we were told its taking over 60 working days.

Along the lines of careerpilot's point:
So what's the point of having a license if you also need a letter? Are we going to start asking TC to also issue a "To whom it may concern" letter every time a license is issued? Anyone who can forge a licence will have an easier time forging a letter.

[Pratt X 3]

Doesn't the Transport Canada General Aviation On-Line Services allow the verification of what TC has issued? How hard would it be to just show your employer what is listed on there?

General Aviation On-Line Services

General Aviation on-line services include:

Flight Crew Licensing

View your:

Personal information
Licence/permit information
Medical certificate information
Flight tests and results
Written tests and results

[Arnie Pye]

Just get rid of the sticker books. They aren't any more safe than the old paper licenses. It would be a lot harder to forge an FAA style pilot license with a magnetic stripe on the back.

I don't know if there's any security measures on the actual sticker portion, but I doubt it would be difficult to forge a sticker that shows an ATPL instead of Commercial. The laminated page doesn't show which license you hold, that is all on a sticker that goes on a different page.

Stickeryou.com shows it would cost me $23 to print a whole roll of 3x2 stickers with rounded corners. Pretty sure a few minutes of scanning could produce just about any qualification you want. Type Ratings on the space shuttle, Airship (Lighter-Than-Air), a regular old ATPL, ... The actual sticker portion of your book is not much more than a fancy colour laser printer with better paper and ink.

[rudder]

Do you really change a system that issues tens of thousands of stickers per year for one case of fraud/forgery?

Better still to focus on improving turn times for processing and on-line access and real-time verification of credentials.

[khedrei]

Its even simpler than any of the above.

If a company is granted an OC in canada, (yes there are a lot, but not as many as there are pilots) that should come with a login and access to an internal verfication on TCs website. All they have to do is login to TC's verification site. Punch in the license number and name, and they get a result. Either "a valid match" or "no match on file". If the operator loses their OC, they lose their login.

Privacy can be protected by making it a simple yes or no answer. An operator cant search the entire database to find out who all has what licenses, but simply when they punch in the info that the potential employee gave them, they get a positive or negative from the TC website.

While this would take a bit of money and effort to implement, it would be more or less a one and done thing. Hell, trudeau spent what... 60 mill for the covid app. This should not be on us pilots to have to seek out from TC and wait 100 days for when applying for jobs.

Why cant our government figure this crap out?

[Arnie Pye]

Do you really change a system that issues tens of thousands of stickers per year for one case of fraud/forgery?

Better still to focus on improving turn times for processing and on-line access and real-time verification of credentials.

You're not changing it for one case of fraud. you're changing it to the modern way of doing things. You're doing it because it's the right way to do it today and the technology already exists. Bonus if it makes it harder to commit fraud.

[Me262]

Its even simpler than any of the above.

If a company is granted an OC in canada, (yes there are a lot, but not as many as there are pilots) that should come with a login and access to an internal verfication on TCs website. All they have to do is login to TC's verification site. Punch in the license number and name, and they get a result. Either "a valid match" or "no match on file". If the operator loses their OC, they lose their login.

Privacy can be protected by making it a simple yes or no answer. An operator cant search the entire database to find out who all has what licenses, but simply when they punch in the info that the potential employee gave them, they get a positive or negative from the TC website.

While this would take a bit of money and effort to implement, it would be more or less a one and done thing. Hell, trudeau spent what... 60 mill for the covid app. This should not be on us pilots to have to seek out from TC and wait 100 days for when applying for jobs.

Why cant our government figure this crap out?

Or employer could simply make you login into TC website when you do your in-person interview or hiring paperwork.

AC does this.

[digits_]

Its even simpler than any of the above.

If a company is granted an OC in canada, (yes there are a lot, but not as many as there are pilots) that should come with a login and access to an internal verfication on TCs website. All they have to do is login to TC's verification site. Punch in the license number and name, and they get a result. Either "a valid match" or "no match on file". If the operator loses their OC, they lose their login.

Privacy can be protected by making it a simple yes or no answer. An operator cant search the entire database to find out who all has what licenses, but simply when they punch in the info that the potential employee gave them, they get a positive or negative from the TC website.

While this would take a bit of money and effort to implement, it would be more or less a one and done thing. Hell, trudeau spent what... 60 mill for the covid app. This should not be on us pilots to have to seek out from TC and wait 100 days for when applying for jobs.

Why cant our government figure this crap out?

Or employer could simply make you login into TC website when you do your in-person interview or hiring paperwork.

AC does this.

Hmm that might set a bad precedent. I don't think a company has any business seeing all my info there. Yes the majority of that info is license related, but not everything. Do they force you to use w company computer? (In which case they could log your password) Or can you use your personal computer? (In which case it's very easy to fake the website. Even easier and harder to notice than the paper stuff)

[Me262]

Its even simpler than any of the above.

If a company is granted an OC in canada, (yes there are a lot, but not as many as there are pilots) that should come with a login and access to an internal verfication on TCs website. All they have to do is login to TC's verification site. Punch in the license number and name, and they get a result. Either "a valid match" or "no match on file". If the operator loses their OC, they lose their login.

Privacy can be protected by making it a simple yes or no answer. An operator cant search the entire database to find out who all has what licenses, but simply when they punch in the info that the potential employee gave them, they get a positive or negative from the TC website.

While this would take a bit of money and effort to implement, it would be more or less a one and done thing. Hell, trudeau spent what... 60 mill for the covid app. This should not be on us pilots to have to seek out from TC and wait 100 days for when applying for jobs.

Why cant our government figure this crap out?

Or employer could simply make you login into TC website when you do your in-person interview or hiring paperwork.

AC does this.

Hmm that might set a bad precedent. I don't think a company has any business seeing all my info there. Yes the majority of that info is license related, but not everything. Do they force you to use w company computer? (In which case they could log your password) Or can you use your personal computer? (In which case it's very easy to fake the website. Even easier and harder to notice than the paper stuff)

I'd think personal device, and they can check the website address to make sure it's the real TC website.

[digits_]

I'd think personal device, and they can check the website address to make sure it's the real TC website.

That's very easy to fake on your local computer

[rudder]

In the US, FAA Certificate database is public and searchable. Just checked my own listing. Shows licence held, type ratings, medical date, etc.

They don’t show certificate number or DOB but everything else is there. Individual chooses whether associated address is public (most elect not to).

I am sure that Canada will come up with some unique excuse for why TC cannot do the same here.

[careerpilot?]

I am part of the digital ADB trial and have access to my documents straight from the TC website to download to my Digital ADB.

I know I am not a reference for cyber security, but what I have been trialing appears to be pretty hard to forge or hack. Call me hopeful but when TC goes live with this, it would not only solve careerpilot?'s conundrum but also greatly speedify the issuance of ratings, and Licences (insert ATPL-A here)

58

This sounds like the way.

As many others have mentioned, this could enable a searchable database for company access. Perhaps the pilot could log into their GALRO (or even their digital ADB app) and grant access to a specific company via a company provided code, then the company HR could look in their TC records. Or they get a message / notification saying "x company wishes to view your records, do you wish to grant access?" Not available to search for all, but available on request. It could work alot like pairing Netflix to a new TV, you get a notification with a shared code to grant access.

As others have talked about providing GALRO, that was already a requirement during the hiring process. Had to provide a screenshot of my licenses / ratings / exams page. At the time I thought it would be supremely easy to edit the screenshot to say whatever I wanted it to, this was even before the latest fraud case.

Technology can solve this problem, we just need to get with the times. But as is common with government (I can relate with my current employer), it's hard to dedicate resources to making things better when you're so far behind in everything else, all your time and resources go to just staying afloat, leaving no brain space for innovation. More resources (people, money, a dedicated innovation team) are the only solution to that problem.

[kev994]

Its even simpler than any of the above.

If a company is granted an OC in canada, (yes there are a lot, but not as many as there are pilots) that should come with a login and access to an internal verfication on TCs website. All they have to do is login to TC's verification site. Punch in the license number and name, and they get a result. Either "a valid match" or "no match on file". If the operator loses their OC, they lose their login.

Privacy can be protected by making it a simple yes or no answer. An operator cant search the entire database to find out who all has what licenses, but simply when they punch in the info that the potential employee gave them, they get a positive or negative from the TC website.

While this would take a bit of money and effort to implement, it would be more or less a one and done thing. Hell, trudeau spent what... 60 mill for the covid app. This should not be on us pilots to have to seek out from TC and wait 100 days for when applying for jobs.

Why cant our government figure this crap out?

Or employer could simply make you login into TC website when you do your in-person interview or hiring paperwork.

AC does this.

Hmm that might set a bad precedent. I don't think a company has any business seeing all my info there. Yes the majority of that info is license related, but not everything. Do they force you to use w company computer? (In which case they could log your password) Or can you use your personal computer? (In which case it's very easy to fake the website. Even easier and harder to notice than the paper stuff)

You bring a printed version to the interview.