Advisory Committee

The NAV CANADA Advisory Committee (NCAC or the Committee) brings together twenty air navigation system stakeholder groups to provide advice to the NAV CANADA Board of Directors. NCAC members represent air carriers, business and general aviation, airports, regional aviation associations and labour. The strength of the Committee, and its primary value to NAV CANADA, comes from its diverse membership and the relationships its members develop with one another through rich discussions at Committee meetings. With such a diverse membership, it could be challenging to fulfil a key tenet of the Committee’s mandate, which is to speak with one voice. However, Committee members consistently demonstrate a high capacity to understand and appreciate the contrasting and sometimes disparate perspectives of others on issues brought before the Committee to find common ground necessary to advise NAV CANADA.

The past year has been one of continual crisis for the aviation industry, which moved from a pandemic response posture characterized by grounded fleets, laid-off employees and substantial financial losses to a near tripling of traffic year over year, with flying levels rebounding to more than 80% of 2019 levels. The NCAC congratulates the management and staff of NAV CANADA for continuing to operate and maintain Canada’s air navigation system safely throughout this challenging period. Furthermore, the Committee believes the experience gained and leadership developed in successfully navigating through COVID will serve NAV CANADA, and ANS stakeholders, well as attention in the year ahead focuses on the current wave of challenges, including talent shortages, economic recession, inflation, snarled supply chains, the war in Ukraine and the next pandemic threat.

The NCAC had its first in-person meeting in more than two years in Ottawa on June 8th and 9th. This meeting was an opportunity for tenured members to reconnect and for new and old members to meet face-to-face to build new relationships. Key topics of discussion at that meeting, and in the two virtual meetings prior to it, included 5G, the aeronautical study process, major airspace projects at Toronto and Vancouver, ADS-B, RPAS Traffic Management (RTM), stakeholder relations, staffing, fatigue management, aerodrome and airspace capacity, ANS modernization strategy, ATS service delivery, and system performance metrics and targets. The Committee has an ongoing interest in all of these topics. However, the Committee is particularly keen to support NAV CANADA in developing system performance metrics and targets, where it believes that such a data-driven approach will promote more objective and effective dialogue with stakeholders and improve decision-making.

The Committee is, once again, appreciative of the support it received throughout the year from the management and staff at NAV CANADA. The NCAC’s success is dependent on the openness, transparency and timeliness of information shared with it and on the relationships developed among its members, with management and staff, and with the Board. In the year ahead, the Committee looks forward to the opportunity to continue the dialogue and provide input on the critical issues facing NAV CANADA in delivering safe, efficient and sustainable air navigation services across the country and to further strengthen relations with management and the Board.

Brett Patterson
Chairman
NAV CANADA Advisory Committee