Medium Transport
Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP); Flight Crew Instrument; Flight Crew Multiengine
Communication Breakdown; Confusion; Situational Awareness
Aircraft Equipment Problem Less Severe; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural MEL / CDL; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy
General None Reported / Taken
Company Policy; Human Factors; MEL
Due to the unusual circumstances;I believe no one knew the appropriate documentation required.  We arrive to the plane in Toronto and find that we have GPS/ADS-S fail lights fleet wide and all airplane using this FMS were having the same issue so we contact dispatch who transfer us to maintenance control.  We discuss with them our concerns and informed them of what was going on; they were aware of the situation as they were dealing with other aircraft in the company with the same situation.  They then call a mechanic in YYZ to come to our aircraft they discuss the options with him and informed us that because the fault was fleet wide and there wasn't any faults in the aircraft systems it was just a Rockwell FMS faulty update that no MEL was required to operate that flight so the mechanic signed the log can.  And we contacted maintenance control to confirm that we were legal to fly and all necessary paperwork was correct they gave us the green light.  We operated the flight with no issues.  After this flight we also operated eight additional flights without anything in the MEL.  Today I operated a flight and found the appropriate MEL's listed on the release.  So I'm filing this ASAP to list all the flights I operated with out these 2 Mel's being listed on the release based on what maintenance control had informed us in YYZ.  I think [issuing] a memo stating what exactly was going on early so staff would've had a better understanding from the beginning of this unusual situation.
Pilot reported company confusion about the necessity of deferring the GPS system due to system-wide signal failure.