Canadian Transport Minister John Baird today announced that Transport Canada is taking back the certification and oversight functions for business aviation from the Canadian Business Aviation Association (CBAA), effective April 1 next year. In 2005, Transport Canada transferred administration and management responsibilities under CAR 604–the regulation specifically for business aviation–from the agency to CBAA. “This supports Minister Baird’s comments in the House on December 1, when he stated he did not support outsourcing safety monitoring to organizations in the private sector as he considers it to be a core responsibility of government and the department,” a Transport Canada spokesman told AIN. With this change, Transport Canada will reclaim from the CBAA responsibility for issuing operating certificates to new applicants, as well as for processing changes to existing certificate holders. CBAA will still be responsible for certification of business aviation until April 1 next year, but starting next month Transport Canada will step up surveillance of the association’s certification and oversight functions. During this period of transition, Transport Canada plans to conduct a complete review of its surveillance and regulatory structure for business aviation operations. One source familiar with the arrangement said that the scent of this action by TC has been in the air for more than a year. Complaints have been filed with TC by some operators, AIN has learned, and a well publicized Global 5000 accident in November 2007 attracted close scrutiny of CBAA’s auditing capabilities.