Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.
Minister, I'm glad to be able to meet you for the first time. I know that you have a lot of experience and a great many skills.
That being said, I should say to start off with that when you've talked about collaboration--and in my case my office has been trying for two months to have a meeting with you--I believe that collaboration has to work both ways. I also am aware of the marine workers who have been essentially pushed out of a position of collaboration and consultation on changes that may happen in the marine industry. I know that they have written to you on this, and I hope you will receive their concerns and reintegrate them into any changes that may be coming down the pike when it comes to the marine industry.
Those are my comments. I have four specific questions relating to safety, because my impression has been over the first few months in your mandate that safety comes last in terms of your concerns. I'll start off with the issue of the Queen of the North. I wrote to you about the Queen of the North and you did respond--I appreciate that--indicating in terms of any remedial measures that might be taken for ferries on the west coast that:
Until the Transportation Safety Board completes its investigation and arrives at a comprehensive evaluation of the circumstances surrounding the accident, it would be pre-emptive to identify changes to specific processes and/or criteria.
That's the letter you've written to me in terms of the Queen of the North--that we have to await the Transportation Safety Board. Yet when this committee has clearly expressed its point of view that any changes to flight attendant ratios need to wait until the Transportation Safety Board reports back on the Air France accident, the first-year anniversary of which is coming up in August, it seems that Transport Canada and your ministry is moving ahead changes to those flight attendant ratios.
My point is simply this. Given that Transport Canada's own documents indicate that there is a clear difference in safety standards, if we make those changes to flight attendant ratios, will you commit today to not making any changes to flight attendant ratios until we receive that Transportation Safety Board report on the Air France accident? That's my first question.
My second question is around Bill C-6, which deals both with increasing secrecy, exempting airline safety reports from the Access to Information Act, and the fact that now for over a year the civil aviation data reporting systems have not been accessible to the public. Would you not agree with me that Canadians have a right to know if airlines are unsafe, and would you commit today to restoring the civil aviation data reporting system so that the public can be aware when there are safety violations?
My third question is around the issue of the ships out on the west coast--the sinking of the Queen of the North, a single-compartment vessel. What steps has your ministry taken to ensure the safety of the remaining single-compartment boats that are plying the west coast under the banner of B.C. Ferries?
Finally, on rail safety, I could not disagree with you more when you say that the situation has improved. In 2005 we had the largest number of railway accidents that we've had in a decade. We have seen that of those 1,246 accidents, 215 of them involved toxic and dangerous materials. One of them happened in my riding. The Toronto Star has found that Transport Canada, the rail industry's regulator, is either unable or unwilling to prosecute the railways. We've only had seven prosecutions since 1999 under the Railway Safety Act. This is during a period in which we had over 7,600 railway accidents.
My question is very simple. How many Canadians died in 2005 as a result of railway accidents, and how many deaths does it take before this government acts to address the issue? We have called for a public inquiry. I know that other parties have as well. We believe it's essential. Why will you not act on that?