Transport committee  We plan to table it with the committee when it calls us.

Transport committee  We're ready for questions, Mr. Chair.

Transport committee  Is that the Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development's action plan?

Transport committee  Yes. If the committee so decides that they would like to see it, we could certainly table it, Mr. Chair.

Transport committee  Yes, I will.

Transport committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. I have some familiar faces with me today. Just to review, I have with me Luc Bourdon, the director general of rail safety at Transport Canada, and Madam Marie-France Dagenais, the director general of the transportation of dangerous goods directorate.

Transport committee  Exactly, yes.

Transport committee  Absolutely. In fact, that's embedded in law in the rail industry. It's a common carrier obligation that they have to carry the products that are presented to them.

Transport committee  It relates to the transportation of dangerous goods, but obviously any company, within their SMS, if there is a regulatory requirement, must have a methodology for ensuring that the regulatory requirement is met. Protective directions carry the same weight of law as any regulation, so a transportation company that has an SMS would have to ensure that those are being complied with, yes.

Transport committee  I guess it's in the eye of the person you're talking about, Mr. Chair. I'm sure there are some who would think we haven't gone far enough on safety management systems and that we haven't implemented them as thoroughly as we should. We note that progress is incremental and we're constantly trying to improve our systems on a day-by-day basis, but we're more than willing to listen to criticisms of our system and improve the system as we find problems with it.

Transport committee  That's correct.

Transport committee  Well, there's the regulatory construct within it. An SMS is in essence a way for us to measure that the company on a day-to-day basis is monitoring their performance against the required operating regulations that we have.

Transport committee  Yes. Instead of our coming to a company on a periodic basis, be it one year, two years, or six months, and kicking the tires, say, to see whether or not things are working properly, it institutes a system whereby the company has an obligation on a day-to-day basis to ask whether they are meeting these regulatory requirements and what system they have in place to ensure that they are meeting them.

Transport committee  Certainly, Mr. Chair. If that's the wish of the committee, we can provide that information.

Transport committee  Essentially in safety management what our regulations require is a framework for a safety management system. It will outline the various elements that your safety management has to have. Who's your lead safety officer? You have to have a QA program. You have to have environmental aspects to it.