GXER;
Does nobody in a position who should hear this concern actually hear it? Or do they turn a deaf ear?
No. Yes.
It is bureaucratically inconvenient and career-suicide to attempt to turn the tide from within. We in the ranks who witness the daily operational decision-making are as King Kanute sitting in his throne with his feet getting wetter.
This is because the level of flight safety in the industry is being taken for granted and this is because, as experience is lost (because it is expensive so the accountants highlight it as the first thing to go), the newbies assume that "aviation is safe now". That is because they have no concept, no idea of how aviation "got this safe".
To me it is as clear as the lines on my face and hands...the accident rate is going to rise because of this. The regulator in Canada is abdicating its responsibilities and handing safety over to private corporations: the airlines. It is the deregulation, and privatization of flight safety. An independent voice is disappearing from aviation and being replaced by compliant, ignorant, ambitious bureacrats both within the airlines and within the regulator.
Even if a serious aviation safety matter such as an airframe limitation exceedence occurs in Canada, the airline may "quietly" decide to fly the aircraft anyway if the regulator isn't around to oversee the decision-making process.
In Canada there is now no one to go to, to even inform of the fact let alone someone independent of the airlines to take action. In fact even if they knew, the regulator would not take action at this point in the development of SMS.
We cannot go to the Minister of Transport because it is to his benefit to have the responsibiity of flight safety off his desk and onto the airlines. The protection of the Minister is paramount. While complex, such dynamics fundamentally prevent an "open conversation" about flight safety issues under SMS as it is presently constituted. Thus there is no point in going to anyone under the Minister.
The industry is such that it can absorb such inattention for a period of time. Good processes have been built into the system and good flight safety work is done by all airlines in Canada. The failures of SMS will take a period of time to emerge; long enough that the original causes will be gone, along with those who made the decisions.