What is it about the heads of our country's airport authorites? They seem to be resolutely opposed to any type of criticism and prone to delusional behavior. Is it some kind of job requirement?
Earlier this month in the National Post (presumably sandwiched between a Rebecca Eckler piece and a story by Jacob Richler about how great it is to be a Richler) there appeared a very well-written op-ed piece by Colin Kenney, a Liberal Senator and chair of the Senate Committee on National Securtity and Defense on the sorry state of Canadian airport security.
In it, he accused the federal government of allowing the various airport authorities to "run airports like personal fiefdoms", and being "concerned primarily with generating revenues".
Further more, he wrote:
...these authorities play a large and unwarranted role in deciding how security will be handled at each airport. Not satisfied with reduction policing at airports dramatically in recent years, they have actually had temerity to lobby the federal government to give them the right to set up their own rent-a- cop police forces. Just what Canadians need during this new age of terror in the skies -cut-rate cops?
We have the federal agency responsible for improving security at Canada’s airports in the hands of Transport Canada, a department clumsy with issues of security. We have policing at Canadian airports in the hands of understaffed local police forces with no national mandate. We have overall airport decision making largely in the hands of local interests with revenues as their main concern. Is it any wonder that security problems persist at our terminals?
All true, if you ask me (and I realize you didn't).
Anyhow, I didn't post the article since the National Post has shut off its website to non-subscribers, but I have to post the inane letter to the editor of the Post submitted by Reg Milley, chairman of the Canadian Airports Council, which was printed in Saturday's edition and I read on a flight to Chicago yesterday:
We take issue with Senator Colin Kenney's comments on the state of security at Canada's airports (Why Our Airports Still Scare Me, July 13).
Canada's airports rank among the most secure in the world. This is thanks to rigorous management systems instituted and overseen by airport authorities that champion the highest standards of corporate governance.
Well before the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, Canada's airports implemented a comprehensive set of security measures, which have been significantly increased in all areas since 9/11.
We also recommended to the Senate committee, chaired by the Senator, that a central agency be established with responsibility for setting standards for security and intelligence gathering.
The 26 airports that comprise Canada's National Airports System are managed by not-for-profit authorities. They report to boards of directors composed of appointees from all three levels of government, and, in many cases, are also supported by community advisory committees. This ensures a high degree of transparency and accountability in all aspects of their operations.
Airport authorities have set up their security patrols. These patrols work in close co-operation with local police forces, the Canadian Air Transport Security Authority (CATSA), and government bodies operating at airports, including the Canada Border Services Agency and the RCMP.
This co-ordinated security system, combined with the responsible management systems of our airport authorities, is the best way to assure the very highest levels of security, efficiency and customer service at all Canada's airports. We strongly support your commitment to aviation security and recommend that you take this matter up with the appropriate federal officials and legislators.
Please. If you're pointing to political appointees and NIMBY community groups as your organization's selling points you're in trouble.
Most galling of course, is that this stern rebuke of Mr. Kenney's straight talk on security is being delivered by Mr. Milley, a man who, when not super-duper busy with the Canadian Airports Council, is chairman of the Halifax International Airport Authority, a facility which, despite having the "highest levels of security", recently allowed a Romanian national to hide within it's "secure" departure area for 24 hours without clearing security of even having a boarding pass or identification, only to be caught by an airline employee when he tried to board a flight to Boston.
