Transport committee  I can't speak about the differences between the standards. I can speak from my experience working for CN, when it was Canadian-owned, and my experience working for B.C. Rail. Now we've gone to CN again, which is American-owned, and the contrast is immense. There's everything from safety....

Transport committee  You should be. Everyone should be. There is something I want to bring up, and that is the standards for conductors and enginemen. There is a qualification they should have, on top of everything else. They should be qualified like a carman is. They should be qualified on air brakes, so they are able to look at them and say they're not good.

Transport committee  Yes, it is true.

Transport committee  It's water grade railways.

Transport committee  No, it's 32 miles.

Transport committee  No.

Transport committee  No, I'm going to correct you on that. You're right, but I'll go one step further. All engines on B.C. Rail--period--had dynamic braking.

Transport committee  It would have stopped my accident.

Transport committee  That's correct.

Transport committee  My experience is that our workforce has been pared down to the point where we are at a bare minimum everywhere. There's dispatching, which is the RTCs, rail traffic controllers, and on-line supervisors. Something that should be looked at is how much territory an on-line supervisor covers.

Transport committee  We have rectified it. I'm Gordon Rhodes. I'll give you a brief history of my knowledge on railroading. I started out in 1977 as a steel gang labourer back in British Columbia, from Jasper to Kamloops. Then I quit, and I started again in 1984 in section, and I worked section for a couple of years.