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Bill C-27

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Business Plan

Adoption of business plan

123. (1) Every airport authority must, before the beginning of its fiscal year, adopt a business plan for its airports for the upcoming five fiscal years.

Consultation

(2) The airport authority must consult with air carriers operating on the airport on the factors to be taken into account in developing its business plan, including traffic forecasts.

Content

(3) The business plan must include

    (a) a statement of the airport authority's strategic objectives and a description of the anticipated business environment of the authority for the five-year period to which the plan relates;

    (b) an identification of the business objectives and initiatives of the authority, including matters respecting capital expenditures and fees, and financial projections for each fiscal year; and

    (c) a detailed identification of the matters referred to in paragraph (b) for the first year of the planning period.

Financial Statements

Duty to prepare statements

124. (1) Every airport authority must prepare financial statements quarterly and annually. An authority that holds an ownership interest in another corporation must prepare annual consolidated and unconsolidated statements.

Additional statements

(2) The airport authority must ensure that separate annual unconsolidated financial statements are available for each corporation in which it holds an ownership interest and that any subsidiary whose parent is the authority and that has a subsidiary prepares annual consolidated statements.

Audited financial statements

(3) The airport authority must ensure that the annual financial statements referred to in subsections (1) and (2) are audited.

Generally accepted accounting principles

(4) Every airport authority must ensure that its financial statements have been prepared in accordance with Canadian generally accepted accounting principles that are applicable to public enterprises.

Disclosure for each separate airport

(5) The financial statements of an airport authority must disclose revenues and expenses for each separate airport.

Disclosure of revenue

(6) The financial statements must show separately for each airport the revenues derived from

    (a) landing fees;

    (b) general terminal fees;

    (c) other aeronautical fees;

    (d) each passenger fee;

    (e) car parking;

    (f) concessions;

    (g) rental of space in a building;

    (h) rental of land;

    (i) interest; and

    (j) any other category of revenue accounting for at least 2% of the total revenues of the airport authority.

Revenues from passenger fees

(7) Gross revenue from passenger fees must be disclosed, without any deduction, in the financial statements in the year in which they are earned.

Disclosure - passenger fees

(8) If a passenger fee is imposed to finance a major capital program, infrastructure covered by an agreement referred to in paragraph 50(2)(c) or a program designated under section 176, the annual financial statements must disclose, on an annual and cumulative basis from the year in which the fee is established, all expenditures made in respect of the program or infrastructure and all revenues from the passenger fee and any other fee or source of revenue or funding received by the airport authority for the program or infrastructure.

Disclosure - existing passenger fees

(9) In the case of a passenger fee that was imposed before the coming into force of this section, the disclosure, on a cumulative basis, must include the information required by subsection (8) from the time the fee was introduced.

Notes to financial statements

(10) The notes to the annual financial statements must include

    (a) a summary of significant accounting policies, including revenue recognition for each category of revenue;

    (b) a summary of commitments and contingencies;

    (c) a list of grants, contributions and subsidies received by the airport authority and the purpose for which they were given;

    (d) a description of transactions between the airport authority and each corporation in which it holds an ownership interest; and

    (e) the financial exposure of the authority, within the meaning of section 57, in each corporation in which it holds an ownership interest.

Regulations

(11) The Governor in Council may make regulations respecting information, including additional information, that must be included in financial statements.

Certification

(12) The chief executive officer of the airport authority must certify that the financial statements do not contain any untrue statements or omissions of material facts and that they fairly present the financial position of the authority. The chief executive officer must give the auditor, without delay, a certified copy of the statements and, if any material errors are subsequently detected in them, certified revised financial statements.

Required approval

125. An airport authority must not issue, publish or circulate copies of the annual financial statements unless those statements are approved by its board of directors and accompanied by the auditor's report.

Auditor's Report

Auditor's report

126. The auditor of the airport authority must audit the annual financial statements of the authority in accordance with Canadian generally accepted auditing standards and submit a report to it for the fiscal year for which the auditor has been appointed as soon as possible after the end of that fiscal year.

Supplementar y reports

127. (1) The auditor must prepare and submit to the board the following reports:

    (a) a separate report indicating whether, in the auditor's opinion, the airport authority's activities and investments referred to in sections 57 and 58 are in accordance with this Act, the regulations and the by-laws of the authority and whether the transactions between the authority and any corporation in which it has an ownership interest are on commercial terms; and

    (b) a report identifying any matter that falls within the scope of the auditor's examination in the course of preparing the auditor's report that, in the auditor's opinion, should be brought to the board's attention.

Submission of reports

(2) An airport authority must send a copy of the reports referred to in subsection (1) to the Minister within 30 days after receiving them.

Right to information

128. (1) The present or former directors, officers, employees, agents or mandataries of the airport authority must provide the auditor, on request, with information and explanations and access to any records, documents, books, accounts and vouchers that they are reasonably able to provide and that are, in the opinion of the auditor, necessary to enable the auditor to exercise their powers and carry out their duties and functions, including preparing the auditor's report on the financial statements.

Corporations in which authority holds ownership interest

(2) At the request of the auditor, the directors of the airport authority must

    (a) obtain from the present or former directors, officers, employees, agents and mandataries of any corporation in which the airport authority holds an ownership interest the information and explanations that they are reasonably able to provide and that are, in the opinion of the auditor, necessary to enable the auditor to exercise their powers and carry out their duties and functions, and those persons must provide the requested information and explanations; and

    (b) provide the auditor with the information and explanations so obtained.

Annual Report

Annual report

129. (1) Every airport authority must prepare an annual report for each fiscal year.

Content

(2) The report must contain a general summary of the airport authority's business and affairs during the fiscal year and must include the following information:

    (a) audited, annual financial statements and the corresponding auditor's report;

    (b) audited, consolidated financial statements for each subsidiary whose parent is the airport authority and the corresponding auditor's report;

    (c) a narrative summary of any investments in corporations in which the airport authority holds an ownership interest, including a description of their corporate structure and activities, the amount invested and disclosure of the percentage of shares held by the authority in each, and, in the case of a subsidiary, a list of all its directors;

    (d) the degree to which the business objectives and initiatives set out in the airport authority's business plan have been met or undertaken, or an explanation of why they have not been met or undertaken;

    (e) a statement of the business objectives and initiatives of the airport authority taken from the business plan for the current fiscal year;

    (f) a statement of the remuneration and other taxable benefits provided by the airport authority to each director and the chief executive officer of the authority;

    (g) a statement of the range of the remuneration and the other taxable benefits provided by the airport authority to its officers, other than the chief executive officer;

    (h) a statement of the remuneration and other taxable benefits provided to each director and officer of the airport authority by any corporation in which the authority holds an ownership interest;

    (i) a report on the compliance of directors and officers with the conflict of interest rules, including a summary of any agreement or arrangement to which the airport authority is a party under which a director, an officer or a person related to one of them derives a benefit of a financial nature directly or indirectly;

    (j) a summary of consultations undertaken under this Act, including consultations with air carriers and the community;

    (k) a summary of the corporate governance of the airport authority, including a report of the activities of the committees of the board;

    (l) a summary of environmental incidents on the airport for which notice is required to be given under subsection 110(1) and any corrective measures taken;

    (m) a narrative summary of, and a statistical report relating to, the activities of air carriers operating on the airport, including the provision of new services and the measures taken by the airport authority under section 24 to accommodate them;

    (n) the information referred to in section 96 respecting contracts referred to in that section entered into by airport authorities or by corporations referred to in subsection 55(2);

    (o) a summary of capital expenditures and the related capital projects;

    (p) a report on the airport authority's performance according to the performance indicators referred to in section 136 for the current year and the four preceding years;

    (q) a summary of the recommendations from any performance review referred to in section 138 and the airport authority's response to them;

    (r) a summary of all penalties assessed against the airport authority or its directors or officers under this Act; and

    (s) a list of documents referred to in subsection 134(2) and the places where they may be obtained.

Regulations

130. The Governor in Council may make regulations respecting the contents of the annual reports, including additional contents to be included in them.

Annual Meeting

Annual meeting

131. (1) Every airport authority must hold an annual meeting within the first 150 days after the beginning of each fiscal year at which it must present its annual report. The business transacted at the meeting must relate to the carrying out of the airport undertaking on the airport, and must include the announcement of the auditor's appointment.

Meeting open to public

(2) The annual meeting must be open to the public and held at or near the airport authority's head office, in premises large enough to accommodate the anticipated attendance.

Notice to selecting bodies

(3) The airport authority must, at least 30 days before the annual meeting, send to the selecting bodies a notice of the date, time and place of the annual meeting and, at least seven days before the meeting, a copy of the annual report.

Publication of notice

(4) The airport authority must, at least 21 days before the annual meeting, publish in each daily newspaper published and circulated in the largest municipality served by the airport - or, if there is no daily newspaper, in each weekly newspaper - a notice indicating the date, time and place of the annual meeting and stating that the annual report will be available at least seven days before the meeting from the authority on request. The authority must also post a notice in prominent places in every air terminal building on the airport.

Attendance

132. Every airport authority must take the measures necessary to enable participants at the annual meeting to ask questions and to express their views. Two thirds of the airport authority's directors, including the chairperson, and the chief executive officer, must attend each annual meeting in person and answer any questions about the annual report.