There have been a few emails floating around the patch in March concerning Transport Canada collecting data on GA activity and suggestions that letters need to be written expressing opinions. Let me try to clarify this matter.

On March 1st, Transport Canada held a meeting in Ottawa with General Aviation industry representatives. This was to discuss the options for collecting data from GA and what data may be currently available.

Transport hired a consultant to do some work on this, part of which was the March 1st meeting. At this meeting, a lot of constructive input was provided from industry, including COPA, RAA, and UPAC.

Transport Canada is investigating the possibility of using their ECATS system, which is how they collect activity data from the airlines, and this has got some people worried they might ask for too much. Transport seems to understand the difference and wants to define what TC, with the help of the GA industry, can do to establish the importance of general aviation in Canada or what is referred to as the “economic footprint of general aviation.” This is paraphrased from a quote by a senior TC official.

Transport Canada has committed to working with the industry to develop something workable, but there is no proposal on the table yet.

One thing to keep in mind is that if TC does not start gathering and making data on GA available somehow, we will never be able to convince the elected politicians that GA has significant economic value and that we need a GA policy in this country. COPA has been urging Transport to make the Annual Airworthiness Report data available in summarized form for over 10 years, and recently they started collecting this online to facilitate that. This is only one part of the data needed to monitor the health of General Aviation.

Pilots understandably get concerned over being monitored too much. But the less visible we become, the less understanding we get from the politicians and the general public, and the greater the chances we will disappear altogether.

Watch COPA Flight, the COPA website, and the COPA Flights e-News for reports on this activity as it develops.