EDMONTON -- The president of a national skydiving organization says the federal government is taking an unprecedented step toward regulating leisure activities by announcing new proposed rules on the sport the group says could actually make it more dangerous.
Transport Canada announced earlier this week it's taking steps to tighten up safety standards for the training of student parachutists and instructor certifications at skydiving schools.
The new rules come in the wake of the deaths of at least two parachutists in recent years, who both died at the same Calgary-area skydiving school.
While the industry has been governed by a set of voluntary standards, on things like procedures and technical recommendations, proposed amendments to the Canadian Aviation Regulations would make those things mandatory.
Tim Grech, president of the Ontario-based Canadian Sport Parachuting Association, is dismissing the new proposed regulations as unnecessary.
"The government would be starting to regulate something they know nothing about," he said in an interview Friday from Dunnville, Ont. He argues the industry, and its voluntary model of drafting safety and training standards, is better equipped to respond quickly to emerging safety trends.
Grech said if the current experience is any indication, it could take years for new safety proposals to be approved by the federal government.
"It would literally handcuff us as far as our ability to change, to promote safety," he said.
Grech said the government first proposed changing the rules on the skydiving industry in 1999, and while that initially received some industry support, the new proposal has evolved into something so vague it has left the industry puzzled about how it may affect the country's approximately 56 training schools.
"We have no idea what it will take for our organization to become approved to train skydiving in Canada," Grech said.
Transport Canada spokeswoman Nicole McNeely stressed the regulations are just proposals at this point. "They will provide enforceable standards to ensure individuals and organizations are held accountable for complying with the safety standards of national parachute organizations," she wrote in an e-mail. As for Grech's assertion the government can't adapt quickly to changes in standards and safety, and will hurt the industry, McNeely said Transport Canada will "work as quickly as possible with the industry and parachuting organizations/groups to respond appropriately."
An Alberta judge recommended national skydiving regulations after a 2005 fatality inquiry into the death of Nadia Kanji.
In July 1998, she plunged to her death at the Skydive Ranch, a Calgary-area training facility, after her parachute malfunctioned.
-- The Canadian Press
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