Exemption from section 302.208 of the Canadian Aviation Regulations

NCR-031-2020

Pursuant to subsection 5.9(2) of the Aeronautics Act, and after taking into account that the exemption is in the public interest and is not likely to adversely affect aviation safety or security, I hereby exempt all Canadian airport operators from the requirements of section 302.208  – Testing of the Emergency Plan of the Canadian Aviation Regulations (CARs), subject to the conditions set out below.

Section 302.208 – Testing of the Emergency Plan of the CARs states that, an operator of an airport shall test the emergency plan by conducting a full-scale exercise for the airports designated by the Minister in the Canada Flight Supplement to be used by international service, at intervals not exceeding two years, and for other airports, at intervals not exceeding four years. All airports are required to conduct a table top exercise each year in which no full-scale exercise is conducted.

The above mentioned provisions are reproduced in Appendix A.

Purpose

The purpose of this exemption is to allow all Canadian airport operators to defer the requirement to conduct these exercises by a maximum of 18 months.

As the COVID-19 situation continues to evolve, this exemption would allow Canadian airport operators who are required to conduct exercises at various intervals and that essentially need a large numbers of participants to congregate to complete their required exercise at a more appropriate time.

The purpose of this exemption is to adopt temporary measures in the public interest to reduce the potential of person to person transmission following the declaration of a pandemic outbreak of novel coronavirus (COVID-19) by the World Health Organization (WHO) on March 11th, 2020.

Application

This exemption applies to all Canadian airport operators for the purpose of testing of the emergency plan that were previously planned to occur between March 31, 2020 and October 1, 2021.

This exemption ceases to apply to Canadian airport operators that do not respect the conditions of this exemption.

Conditions

This exemption is subject to the following conditions:

  1. The Canadian airport operator who elects to use this exemption shall plan and ensure that full-scale and table top exercises as specified in Section 302.208 of the CARs are conducted within 18 months of the date that this exemption is granted.
  2. The Canadian airport operator who elects to use this exemption shall provide the airport emergency plan to all agencies named as having a responsibility within the plan for their review and written confirmation that the plan is accurate and feasible.

Validity

This exemption is in effect to the earliest of the following:

  1. Until all the exercises that were previously planned to occur between March 31, 2020 and October 1, 2021 are completed; or
  2. the date on which the exemption is cancelled in writing by the Minister where he is of the opinion that it is no longer in the public interest or is likely to adversely affect aviation safety or security.

DATED at Ottawa, Ontario, this 31st day of March, 2020, on behalf of the Minister of Transport.

“Original signed by”

Nicholas Robinson
Director General, Civil Aviation
Transport Canada

Appendix A

Provisions of the Canadian Aviation Regulations

Division II — Airport Emergency Planning

[...]

Testing of the Emergency Plan

302.208 (1) In this section, international service has the same meaning as in subsection 55(1) of the Canada Transportation Act.

(2) The operator of an airport shall test the emergency plan by conducting a full-scale exercise

  • (a) for the airports designated by the Minister in the Canada Flight Supplement to be used by international service, at intervals not exceeding two years; and
  • (b) for other airports, at intervals not exceeding four years.

(3) The operator of an airport shall conduct full-scale exercises based on scenarios that relate to a major aircraft accident and, at a minimum, the exercises shall include the assembly and deployment of fire-fighting, policing and medical services organizations.

(4) The operator of an airport shall conduct a table top exercise each year in which no full-scale exercise is conducted.

(5) The operator of an airport, when conducting a table top exercise, shall have

  • (a) an up-to-date list of the participants and their telephone numbers and the radio frequencies used to communicate;
  • (b) fully operational communication equipment; and
  • (c) a copy of the airport grid map.

(6) The operator of an airport shall base the table top exercises on scenarios that include an aircraft accident or incident.

(7) The operator of an airport shall provide the Minister with a notice in writing of the date and time when a table top or full-scale exercise is to be carried out at least 60 days before the day of the exercise.

(8) The Minister may observe the testing of an emergency plan.

(9) After each exercise, the operator of an airport shall conduct a debriefing with all the organizations identified in the plan and a representative of the airport personnel who participated to evaluate the effectiveness of the emergency plan and identify deficiencies.

(10) The operator of an airport shall implement an action plan to correct any deficiencies in the emergency plan that were identified during a debriefing session.

(11) The operator of an airport shall conduct partial exercises to assess proposed changes in the plan in order to correct deficiencies.

(12) The operator of an airport shall record

  • (a) the date of an exercise;
  • (b) the type of exercise;
  • (c) the minutes of the debriefing session after the exercise; and
  • (d) any action plans to correct deficiencies that were identified during a debriefing session.

(13) The operator of an airport shall keep an exercise record for 10 years after the day on which the record is made.

(14) The operator of an airport shall submit debriefing minutes and corrective action plans relating to an exercise to the Minister on request.

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