Trains, Planes and Negligence

Here we go again. I have said it before and I say it again - safety self-regulation by industry will ONLY work if a safety mindset is in place within the industry. 

Safety Management System, which was instituted to off-load the bother of inspections by Transport Canada, has been a massive failure in the train and air travel industries. Just ask Dave Winter what he thinks of SMS.  He quit his job as a federal aviation inspector over the issue.  (http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/story/2011/11/08/airline-safety-system-flights.html)

For those who do not understand SMS, let me offer you a simple explanation.  It is a voluntary program whereby train and aircraft operators do their own safety inspections and then submit paper work to that end to Transport Canada.  As long as you file the paper work, regardless of whether you actually did the inspection or fixed problems, then you are SMS compliant.  It is a bit like asking criminal to turn themselves in rather than having police actually solve crimes.

The most recent interviews I have seen of MP Olivia Chow concerning this have been spot on. Neither the Cons nor the Libs have a clue or the cahones to tell the truth. 

The basics of the disaster in Lac Megantic are to be found in Transport Safety Board reports going back as far as 1994. 

Single hulled tanker cars that have been called defective designs... a decision to allow a 77 car train with multiple engines to be attended (or not) by one engineer... driving trains over tracks that were not designed for the current weight of cars and materials... and on and on.  These are the causes of Lac Megantic.  One does not have to wait 6 months until a formal report is released in order to act on these issues.

How many more Canadians need to be slaughtered before action is taken?

Unintended consequences

The Harper government has recently made two forees into the labour world at Air Canada to squash the rights of employees.  By arguing that potential strikes at Air Canada would be bad for the economy, they have set themselves up to a declaration that Air Canada is an essential service.  They are saying that under no circumstances can Air Canada stop flying cause it will hurt the economy of Canada.

I do not agree with that assertion but, hey, they are a majority government and can do whatever they want.

But there is a serious downside to this declaration of essential service status and it reared its head in the recent declaration at Transport Canada to threaten the license at Porter Airlines for contravention to the Safety Management System, which "regulated" safety of airlines in Canada.  The SMS, to which it is referred, was the Harper government stab at deregulation of airlines by making safety solely the airlines' responsibility.  As long as the airline filed the right papers on time, the government was happy.  Miss a reporting deadline and, poof, Porter Airline.  Under the SMS, the actual safety "inspections" were the responsibility of the airlines.

But what would happen if Air Canada contravened the SMS to the point that Transport Canada threatened to pull their license?  Would the Government of Canada have to jump in to stop the Government of Canada?  Does this give Air Canada carte blanche to run an airline rife with safety violations?  Think it can't happen?  Remember the Gimli Glider?

Maybe someone should ask PM Harper or Minster Raitt that question?