Amendments to the Secure Air Travel Regulations

Enabling act

Secure Air Travel Act

Description

Under the Passenger Protect Program (PPP) the Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness has the authority to list individuals if there are reasonable grounds to suspect that they will engage, or attempt to engage in an act that would threaten transportation security; or are traveling by air for the purpose of committing an act or omission related to terrorism such as terrorist attacks, funding for weapons, training and recruitment. The Minister may direct an air carrier to take a specific, reasonable and necessary action to prevent such a person from engaging in such activities, such as directing an air carrier to deny transportation to the individual, or requiring that they undergo additional screening before allowing them to enter the waiting area of an airport.

The Government has proposed amendments to the Secure Air Travel Act (SATA) in Bill C-59, Part VI, in order to address issues in the current PPP model. As a result of these proposed legislative amendments, Public Safety is now proposing amendments to the Secure Air Travel Regulations (SATR) in order to ensure alignment between the legislation and the regulations which will provide the legal framework for the enhanced PPP. Specifically, the proposed amendments would enable the centralized screening and redress components of the enhanced PPP.

The proposed amendments to the SATR have three objectives:

• Ensuring effective, consistent and rigorous screening of the SATA List;
• Strengthening privacy safeguards and integrity of the PPP; and
• Enhancing procedural fairness for false-positive matches.

Potential impacts on Canadians, including businesses

There may be business impacts. The “One-for-One” Rule and/or the small business lens may apply.

Regulatory cooperation efforts (domestic and international)

N/A

Consultations

• Consultation with Canadians was conducted in the fall of 2016 through the National Security Consultations and the input received guided the development of Bill C-59 and shaped the development of the redress mechanism for false-positive matches to the SATA List. https://www.canada.ca/en/services/defence/nationalsecurity/consultation-national-security.html  
• Given that broader consultations have taken place, it was decided in consultation with TBS to adopt a targeted stakeholder engagement approach to focus on two main groups: air carriers and civil society. This targeted approach includes:
  • Conference calls/in-person meetings with air carriers during the spring and summer of 2018 (2 with the 5 main air carriers in Canada + 2 with small and remote domestic carriers);
  • In-person meetings respectively with No Fly List Kids and other civil society groups including the Canadian Bar Association in Toronto in August 2018;
  • In-person meeting with the Cross-Cultural Roundtable on Security (CCRS) in Vancouver scheduled for October 2018;
  • A Notice to Stakeholders outlining the proposed amendments to the Secure Air Travel Regulations to be sent out to all air carriers involved in the Passenger Protect Program and the civil society groups identified has been sent for 60 days from September to November 2018. This Notice was also published on the Consulting with Canadians website.
  • Continued interactions with the civil society groups as well as international and domestic air carriers occurred between November 2018 to February 2019 and is scheduled to continue on a regular basis until implementation.
  • Publishing of regulations in Canada Gazette would follow, should Bill C-59 receive Royal Assent.

Further information

N/A

Departmental contact information

Lesley Soper
Project Executive, Passenger Protect Program
613-991-9938
lesley.soper@canada.ca

Date the regulatory initiative was first included in the Forward Regulatory Plan

October 1, 2016

For more information

Date modified:

2019-04-01