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Our achievements and strategies must be relevant. This plan was
developed through analysis of trends in governance, the economy, transportation
infrastructure, the environment, and technology.
Internally, we must identify and build on our strengths and we
must respond to the challenges our business environment presents.
Canadians see our transportation system as safe. However, safety
is not generally a top-of-the mind concern unless an accident or other
incident draws attention to it. As has been demonstrated time and time again,
levels of public and media interest can be quite high when an accident takes
place, but dissipate quickly afterwards. Moreover, coverage of
transportation incidents illustrates that there is very little public or media
understanding of the concept of "acceptable risk", of the role the department
plays in transportation safety, or of the limitations on safety services
provided or regulated by Transport
Canada.
The department has modernized to respond to the needs of
Canadian society. It has commercialized many of its operational activities,
overhauled transportation policy, streamlined regulations, reduced
subsidies and cutoverhead. No longer will the department own, operate or
subsidize large parts of the transportation system. The role of Transport
Canada is to develop up-to-date, relevant transportation policies and legislation,
and to promote and monitor safety and security activities in order to maintain
a high level of safety.
Transport Canada can build on such strengths as our deep-rooted
cultural bias for safety and our ability to collaborate and create
partnerships. Our commitment to partnership is evidenced by our extensive
consultations with industry and the provinces. An excellent example is the
collaboration with our provincial counterparts to establish "Road Safety Vision
2001," a joint initiative aimed at making our roads the safest among
OECD countries by the year 2001. Well-established consultative forums such as
the Canadian Council of Motor Transport Administrators, the Transportation of
Dangerous Goods Advisory Council, the Canadian Marine Advisory Council, and the
Civil Aviation Regulations Advisory Council provide significant guidance in the
establishment of transportation safety policy. The consensus is that we can
improve on our efforts to involve the public in the definition of
transportation safety policy.
Our experienced staff has strong credibility and influence, and
our leadership is respected by the stakeholder community. We can take pride in
our national and international influence and achievements. We face, however,
the challenge of a very competitive market for highly skilled safety
and security professionals; we must address this in our approach to
recruitment, training and development.
The department recognizes the need for greater consideration of
the full range of compliance tools available to promote safe practices and
notes the requirement for more consistent application of our compliance
tools across regions and across modes. Some operational information systems
will have to be modernized and better integrated, and we must address the
question of whether we are collecting the right information on which to base
policy decisions and measure our impact.
We have the opportunity to increase co-operation internally by
taking greater advantage of our knowledge, skills and experience and to
identify best practices in each branch and each regional division of Transport
Canada.
Finally, we must respond to the challenge presented by the
public to measure the results of our efforts and to demonstrate how tax dollars
are contributing to the enhancement of transportation safety and security.
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