Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I have a Return to Oral Question asked by the Member for Inuvik Boot Lake on November 1, 2001. Mr. Floyd Roland wanted to know if the security screening done at the Yellowknife airport is performed at the discretion of the airlines.

Under the authority of the Canadian Aviation Security Regulations, Transport Canada designates the security classifications and requirements for Canadian airports. In determining its security designations, Transport Canada completes a risk assessment for each airport according to a number of criteria, such as the type and volume of air traffic moving through the airport and the routes the airport serves. In the end, the specific reason Transport Canada has for assigning a security classification to a given airport is confidential.

The Yellowknife airport has a tighter class II security classification than Inuvik or Norman Wells. The regulations require that on flights departing the Yellowknife airport for other class I or II airports, the air carrier must conduct security screenings of the passengers and their luggage. The air carriers can exercise discretion as to how they decide to satisfy the security regulations. In the case the Member referred to in his question, the air carriers could screen the passengers and luggage prior to their departure from Inuvik or Norman Wells and thus avoid the security screening in Yellowknife before proceeding onwards to a class I or II airport.

In this case, however, the air carriers have decided not to do the security screening in Inuvik and Norman Wells. This means that onward bound passengers from Inuvik and Norman Wells must go through the security screening in Yellowknife before continuing their flight. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.