Safety and economic regulation of air transportation in Canada

The Federal Government, in the exercise of its exclusive constitutional jurisdiction over aeronautics, has adopted laws and regulations that address the various aspects of the aviation system. These laws and regulations have evolved significantly from the first piece of Federal legislation passed in 1919.Some of those laws and regulations have as their objective achieving and maintaining an adequate level of aviation safety, while others are intended to ensure that Canadians have access to an efficient and reliable national air transportation system.On the safety side, there are laws and regulations that establish standards of quality for the aircraft, standards of competence for air carriers and standards of competence and medical fitness of the personnel. There are also regulations that specify the conditions that must be met in order to register an aircraft in Canada.On the economic side, there are laws and regulations that set the terms and conditions for the operation of domestic and international air services. In the domestic context, such laws and regulations have gone from strict and almost complete government intervention, to giving effect to recent policies of less regulation and more competition.These same laws and regulations, while providing the regulatory authority with the necessary enforcement tools, also recognize the need to ensure that it does not act improperly or abusively. For such purpose, the stakeholders have access to several different recourses to challenge the actions of the regulatory authority