Civil Aviation Directive No. 24

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Transport Canada

Directive No. 24

Release of Civil Aviation Personnel to ICAO
and Foreign States

Policy Objective:

To clarify the conditions governing the release of Civil Aviation employees to participate in ICAO and Foreign States’ programs.

Background:

ICAO Assembly Resolution A29-13, calls on States to provide financial and technical resources to assist developing States in carrying out their safety oversight responsibilities. In keeping with the Resolution, Canada has been providing technical and financial assistance including the assignment of Civil Aviation employees from its operating budgets.

While the personal development and organisational benefits of these assignments are recognized, the challenge for Civil Aviation managers has been to mitigate the impact that the loss of technical expertise has had on domestic program performance, particularly during times when the pool of expertise is in short supply.

Policy Statement:

Civil Aviation supports the release of its employees on short-term and long-term assignments to ICAO and Foreign States provided that it can continue to meet its own critical program targets and subject to the following priorities and conditions:

Priorities:

Civil Aviation activities for domestic programs;
ICAO Committees, panels, Working and Planning Groups;
ICAO Universal Safety Oversight Audit Program (IUSOAP);
ICAO Technical Cooperation Program;
Individual Foreign States (ICAO Resolution A29-13).

Conditions:

No assignments greater than 6 months and less than 1 year plus a day will be considered.

For short-term assignments (up to 6 months):

approval will be at the discretion of the employee’s Regional Director or HQ Director General as specified in the Delegation of Authority Manual;
requests for extensions will be handled on a case-by-case basis.

For long-term assignments (one 1 year plus a day):

the maximum number of employees that may be released from a Region or the HQ Directorate is two percent (2%) of the number of funded positions in that Region or at HQ;
the employee relinquishing his/her substantive position;
the employee providing a minimum three (3) months notice to the manager prior to the start of the assignment;
approval will be at the Deputy Minister level (see Approach below).

Application:

The Policy applies to all Civil Aviation Headquarters and regional employees applying for short-term and long-term assignments.

Approach:

Pursuant to the Public Service Employment Act, employees on leave of absence for a period of more than one year, become entitled to a priority for appointment. Civil Aviation will endeavour to provide the same classification level to employees on return to Transport Canada.
Leave of absence requests and extensions must be made in accordance with the relevant collective agreement and departmental leave policy and approval requirements. Advice and counselling will be provided upon request by the appropriate Human Resources officers. It is the responsibility of employees to seek counselling as soon as possible to facilitate the process.
ICAO will send formal requests as early as possible to the Canadian Representative on the ICAO Council (CANREP), who will forward the requests, including identification of the Canadian candidates, to the Director, International Aviation for appropriate co-ordination.
For short-term assignments, the employee’s Director shall co-ordinate the memorandum of release with the appropriate Human Resources officers.
For long-term assignments, the process is the same as above except that regional nominations must be recommended to the Regional Director-General, Transport (RDGT) and then routed to DGCA, All nominations will be forwarded to the ADM, Safety and Security for consideration before submission to the Deputy Minister for approval.
On a case by case basis, taking into consideration the benefit to Transport Canada gained through the increased knowledge and experience of the employee, recommendations will be made to the Deputy Minister to approve the payment of the employer’s portion of superannuation for the first year of the assignment only. This does not apply when it is known that the employee is not intending to return to TC upon completion of the assignment.
Upon approval, it is the employee’s responsibility to seek the appropriate briefings and documentation from Human Resources.
Copies of all of the nomination and decision documents will be sent to the appropriate Human Resources offices and the Director, International Aviation who will advise the Canadian Representative on the ICAO Council of the decision for transmission to the ICAO Secretariat.