In 2009 a Colgan air flight 3407 crashed in New York, killing a total of 50 people. Findings from the crash cited poor training and erroneous actions from the pilots as the cause of the disaster. In response, the FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) made changes to the training requirements and experience required for airline pilots. One being, raising the qualifications for both Captain and First Officer to have an ATP (Airline Transport Pilot) license. The ATP license has additional requirements for pilots to obtain beyond the basic commercial pilots standards, including accumulating a minimum of 1500 total flight hours. Prior to this, co-pilots for the American regional airlines were only required to have the bare minimum to fly commercially and were often hired right out of school with no experience. 

Transport Canada has blatantly ignored this incident and never made any changes to the Canadian airline pilot requirements. Canadian regional airlines can and do operate the same Dash 8 Q400 aircraft involved in this incident with inexperienced pilots. In Canada, Co-pilots are currently hired right out of school with as little as 250 hours and are often paired with inexperienced captains having never flown Captain on anything larger than a light single engine aircraft. These inexperienced crews are accidents waiting to happen, especially operating in the remote regions of Canada. Transport Canada should be proactive instead of reactive to another looming accident and at a minimum, require both pilots operating in an airline setting to obtain a Canadian Airline Transport Pilot License. 

Additionally, By Increasing the flight crew experience required it will undoubtedly impact the large pay disparity in pay between US and Canadian air carriers. Changes made by the FAA positively impacted pay and working conditions for American airline pilots. Canadian regional carriers currently pay pilots near poverty levels and require crews to live in the cities with the highest cost of living. This wage disparity has caused many pilots to move abroad for better paying opportunities and planted the seeds for a pilot shortage in Canada. Additionally, COVID-19 brought many additional challenges for the aviation industry and pilots could dramatically benefit from better working conditions in a post COVID-19 setting. 

Let's attempt to avoid another disaster before it happens here in Canada and adopt the American standard where both pilots have the adequate experience required.