The logjam for medical certifications by Transport Canada is now affecting air traffic controllers and that might finally get someone’s attention. According to the Devon Dispatch There are now a handful of veteran controllers in Ontario waiting for their medicals. For the past couple of years new pilots have been dealing with waiting up to two years for their medicals after their file has been forwarded by the civil aviation medical examiner (CAME) they visited. Transport Canada has offered vague excuses but given no indication that things are going to get better.
The medical certification system in Canada is “excessively complicated” said Canadian Air Traffic Control Association (CATCA) President Nick von Schoenberg. “If you can go into a civil aviation medical examiner and they say you’re fit to work, or on the other hand if they say no you aren’t fit to work, to me that should be good enough — why do we have to wait for it all to go through one person to put their signature on it and then send it to Transport Canada’s licensing department to review the file and then send it back.”