TRGO Committee Report
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BLOC QUÉBÉCOIS DISSENTING OPINION
While the Bloc Québécois supports most of the observations and recommendations in the report by the Standing Committee on Transport and Government Operations on airline security and safety, it cannot endorse the report as a whole. From the very first day that witnesses were heard, the Bloc Québécois championed the idea that a single body should be responsible for transportation safety all across Canada. A majority of the Committee's members recommend the creation of a Secretary of State for Transportation Security, supported by a Transportation Security Authority that would be responsible, among other things, for airline security, and would have to maintain an ongoing dialogue with the American Under Secretary for transportation security and with counterparts in other countries. The Committee recommends that this body come within the Department of Transport portfolio. This recommendation strikes us as definitely problematic.
In the broader interest of the people of Quebec and of Canada, the Bloc Québécois maintained that an expert organization specialized in security, criminology and terrorism should be set up to supervise, develop strategies, and select the organizations responsible for applying them. The Bloc Québécois does not think it necessary to create a Secretariat of State, which would be expensive and above all highly politicized. It seems to us that it would be more appropriate to entrust the security of the citizens of Quebec and a Canada to a body that has already proved itself and could intervene appropriately both as matters stand and in the event of any future developments. Witnesses such as the RCMP and CSIS explained to the Committee that before September 11, they had absolutely no responsibility for aviation security, apart from their usual duty to cooperate.
It should be noted that a major political debate has taken place in the United States since September 11. The American government has chosen to entrust transportation security to an Under Secretary with the Department Transport. President Bush has announced that he expects this service within the coming six months, will be transferred to the Department of Homelands Security, the equivalent of our Department of the Solicitor General. Does the Canadian government really need to create an entity subject to another entity? Why should Canada not innovate by creating, starting right now, a national transportation security agency that reports to the Solicitor General and that would be solely in charge of air transportation security, among other matters, across Canada?
Since Canada and the United States will have to cooperate more and more closely to ensure the shared security of our citizens, and since the two departments are already working together on a regular basis, it seems to us that the simplest solution would be to entrust the administration of security to the Solicitor General. In addition, this would give us a head start on the American policy, which would facilitate our mutual adjustment.
Canada needs a national transportation security agency that could report to the Solicitor General and that would be dedicated, among other things, to air transportation security for the people, and responsible to them.