Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - June 3, 1981, Winnipeg, Manitoba Winnipeg free press. Wednesday june 7 focus air safety findings Are devastating by Fred Cleverley i or. Justice Charles Dubin writes on Page 29 of the first volume of his report on aviation safety that unless remedial action is taken in Many areas in the not too Distant future there will be a serious decline in our safety the areas include that senior transport Canada management influence on an investigation into the crash of a govern ment manufactured aircraft had delayed remedial work on other models of the same aircraft. Before they acted there was a second crash one that took two jives which might have been while officials pondered the particular importance twin otters manufactured by the federally owned de Havilland company played in the Canadian manufacturing the report found that the department of licensing and airworthiness within Dot and de Havilland Canada did not act in the Best interests of Public Safe that senior transport Canada management edited an Acci Dent report to remove a paragraph that could be interpreted As blaming department policy in part for a crash that took eight lives and subsequently published without the approval of the aircraft Accident review Board a Dif Ferent report of the same Accident in which no blame was attached to department policy. That senior management of transport Canada effectively pre vented Winnipeg Region officers from suspending the operating licence of an airline that had committed numerous breaches of the aeronautics act partly because of the possibility of embarrassment to the minister and any other potential political implications which May that employees of trans port Canada in direct Defiance of department of Justice instructions shred ded a 15-Inch-High stack of documents relating to the crash of the Pacific Western airlines Jet at Cranbrook ., on the theory that documents that do not exist cannot be subpoena and that sometimes it is better not to know the real cause of a crash. That senior officers of transport Canada resisted an audit taken after a crash that claimed two department lives that was highly critical of the manner in which trans port Canada maintained its own air an audit was then conducted of the audit. The report suggests the resistance at transport Headquarters was quite inappropriate and that there should have been immediate action taken to Deal with the Many criticisms reflected in the report of the audit in the preface to his report or. Justice Dubin notes the Lack of flexibility the resentment with which constructive criticism is received and the vindictiveness of the senior manage ment of transport Canada. During the course of the he writes it was brought to my attention that two witnesses who had Given testimony before the commission were the subject of harassment consequent upon such attendance and i found it Neces sary to publicly reprimand the officials responsible for such harassment. As a result of the Public assurances to that effect which you the minister of transport gave when this matter was brought to your attention As Well As similar assurances Given by the administrator i am confident that none of the witnesses who testified before the commission will be prejudiced in any Way in their future with the department by reason of their having Given Evi Dence before the the report simply paints a picture Ontario supreme court Justice Charles Dubin looked into air crashes such As 1978 twin Otter at Vancouver right and 1978 Boeing 737 at Cranbrook Walter Mcleish named in report on review committee. Much worse than most canadians suspected of what is happening in Avia Tion safety in this country. Most people associated with the aviation Industry have recognized that it makes Little sense to have the ministry of transport which is in the business of regulating aviation attempt to be a policeman and participant in the same business. The situation is similar to the practice Long since discarded when the Canadian broadcasting corporation was charged with the operation of a National radio network and at the same time required to make sure the private broadcasters obeyed the rules. No lives were at stake if the broadcasting rules were broken but the system was discarded because everyone recognized that it placed the Csc As both a competing broadcaster and policeman in an impossible Posi Tion. Transport Canada in its various departments operates one of the largest fleets of aircraft in the country most of the major airports and the air traffic control system. The department is also responsible for air safety Accident investigation and the enforcement of air regulations. The Dubin report says that while Canada is not alone in having a Branch of government investigate itself it appears to be lagging behind the United states which in 1975, established an Independent tribunal to investigate accidents and make recommendations based on those accidents in the interest of future safety. The commission heard James b. King chairman of the National transportation safety Board of the United states it was his opinion that the most effective Way to get action from the regulatory authority responsible for aviation in the United states was by the Public disclosure of the aviation system deficiencies detected by the National transportation safety Board and by extensive Media coverage of such deficiencies. I Hope that that is not the Case in Canada although regretfully on occasion it does appear that Public disclosure is responded to by More decisive action than might otherwise have been the or. Justice Dubin has Given priority to the question of Accident and incident investigation and reporting. His recommendation is quite Clear the establishment of an Independent Tribu Nal to investigate All accidents and incidents and to make recommendations for safety measures As a result of these investigations. The recommendation goes Well beyond the provision put before Parlia ment by the then Liberal government in 1979. Then in Bill c-40, the govern ment proposed an Independent investigation Board but one of limited Juris diction composition and objective. It would have been limited for example to the investigation Only of fatal Acci dents about one seventh of All aircraft accidents while the department would continue to investigate the rest. Dubin recommends that the Independent Tri Bunal investigate All accidents and incidents since life saving recommendations often result from the investigation of non fatal accidents. He recommends that the tribunal restrict itself to air accidents and not attempt to become an investigator of All transportation accidents. He suggests that Accident investigators be Given a Clear understanding of the Legal consequences that their work might create. He also called for a a Clear and precise definition of limited privilege where statements taken by air Accident investigators from witnesses which Are normally privileged and cannot be divulged might be used under certain circumstances. His recommendation for Independence from other government agencies is based upon the need for the investigation tribunal to achieve its main objective that of aviation safety. He suggests that any legislation creating such a tribunal contain a statement of objective underlining the fact that aircraft Accident and incident investigations Are conducted in order to determine the facts conditions and circumstances relating to each Acci Dent or incident and the probable cause thereof with a View to ascertaining measures which will Best tend to pre vent similar accidents or incidents in the future and not for the purpose of apportioning blame or most important All findings of the Independent tribunal should be made Public. The report has been delivered trans port minister Jean Luc Pepin. He has referred it to a committee of six including four present or former employees of the department of transport. The committee includes Walter Mcleish the administrator of the Canadian air transportation administration of transport Canada and the most senior of the senior management specifically mentioned by name in the report. The inclusion of Mcleish on the re View committee is bound to raise doubts about Pepin s Promise to implement the report. The report itself de votes almost three pages to Mcleish s defence of his department and his attempt to shift the blame for what had been discovered during the commission hearings on to his superiors in trans port Canada. The report says there has been no evidence submitted that Cata Mcleish s department had. Been hampered in achieving its objectives As a result of the Lack of support from the department of the report states that there must be structural changes in the organization of the air administration and a change in the procedures presently in effect if current and future safety issues Are to be dealt with promptly and efficiently. To be effective the responsibilities should be placed in the hands of a tribunal Independent of the air admin have our politicians lost control of inflation financial or recently financial expert or. Mor ton Shulman put into words what Many canadians that record High interest rates Are beyond the control of the politicians. Every Day finance minister Allan Maceachen rises in the House of commons to defend an interest rate policy he ridiculed when it was Practised in much Milder form by the Clark government. Manitoba finance minister Brian Ransom deplores the High rates but says the problem is that the Federal government is not complementing its tight Money policy with tight fiscal restraint As the Clark government was trying to do when it was Defeated. The provincial government appears to believe in the total of or. Milton Friedman s economic theory of monetarism. The Federal liberals Are wavering with a tight Money coupled with moderate fiscal expansion. Friedman economics has been de scribed by leading american Liberal economist John Kenneth Galbraith As the revolt of the Rich against the it advocates massive reductions in government spending especially on social programs and tight control Over the Money Supply As the cure for inflation. It is today s trendy economics. Friedman As the apostle of the new right or Neo conservatism has been followed in Chile Israel Brit Ain and now the . Under the Reagan administration. Canada is being car ried along like a Leaf in the wind. Friedman supporters argue that keynesian economics which favors the interventionist state and which sees fiscal policy As the tool to manage the Economy has been a total failure. However the track record of Friedman is not reassuring either. Israel is currently staggering under 90 per cent interest rates and 132 per cent inflation. Britain has record High unemployment and High inflation. The ., now firmly in the grip of Frie Manite economists is practising tight Money and enormous cutbacks in social programs with unclear results to Date. Manitoba s experience has. Been equally unimpressive. While the prov Ince has no control Over monetary policy Federal tight Money was in place when the Lyon government applied acute protracted restraint to its own fiscal policy during its first two years in office. The province is currently projecting the highest deficit in its history. Million and its cumulative deficit during its four years now stands at Over million. While Maceachen parrots the Fried Man line on interest rates the govern ment s support for monetarism seems based More on perceived necessity to keep in step with the . Than on Faith. Does Canada have to keep its interest rates at or near . Levels in order to keep the capital it has and attract additional investment two University of Manitoba economists sharply Dis agree. Or. Reuben Bellan who leans to wards the Galbraith an school says interest rates at the 20 per cent level Are a prime contributor to the inflation they Are supposed to Dampen. Bellan has calculated that the 10 per cent increase in interest charges Between 1975 and now Means that an additional billion is being sucked out of the Economy to pay for mortgages con Sumer Loans and corporate debt. Without question if we had today the interest rates we had in 1975, our inflation rate would be several per cent Bellan says. Or. John Mccallum agrees with Bel Lan that High interest rates do add to inflation in the Short term. But Mccal Lum who leans towards Friedman says that if they Are kept High for at least a year there should be some decrease in the inflation rate. Monetary policy is like a rope around the Mccallum says. You can t push on a rope. But you can use a rope to pull tighter and Bellan says the Canadian govern ment show old return to the statutory policy it had prior to 1967 when it was illegal under the Bank act to have interest higher than six per cent. Bellan dismisses fears that Money would flood out of Canada. Swit Zerland he says pays interest of Only five per cent yet foreign investors Are clamouring to get their Money in. Swit doonesbury Zerland also he Points out enjoys an inflation rate of about three per cent. Bellan says the government also need not fear about attracting foreign Capi Tal. Most of the foreign capital now in Canada is being used to buy cars and take trips not for new Plant he says. Bellan argues that inflation is not because of Loose Money or any of the other Friedman it is due to exorbitant profit and wage demands brought about by a reduction in Competition. He advocates controls to restrict inflationary demands until increases in wages and profits match increases in real output. Mccallum argues that it is simply too easy for canadians to Transfer their savings to american Banks for a vast differential in interest rates to work. If you have to invest would you put it where you would get or where you could Only get Mccal Lum asks. Mccallum argues for the savers Over the borrowers. Interest rates must be High enough that savers keep abreast of inflation after tax he says. It is bad enough that the politicians cannot control interest rates. What is worse is that the economists upon whom the politicians rely Are unable to agree on either the problem or the solution. May Kif Auorb a0uck akm Bank. Goo Dika. Go butter he know Hovi ;