Transport committee  I didn't see the stats. I'm not sure whether that's accurate or not. It's up to each province to audit their carriers to make sure they're following the safety procedures and that they get audited when they reach a certain threshold in their safety percentage.

Transport committee  A simulator is made to add on to the live training. With most companies that have simulators, it complements the actual training. The technology is fantastic and it's great, but it can't take away from the real training. I mean, we have a couple of members who do have a simulator.

Transport committee  It's accurate. We need to look at mandatory entry-level training. As an industry, we need to make it a skilled trade. Never mind dangerous goods, the driver has a lot of responsibilities, a lot of regulations to worry about. Therefore, we feel that those two items, training and becoming a skilled trade, would be key for our industry.

Transport committee  It is regulated provincially, although we seem to follow all the same standards. We're always working toward harmonization for training in our industry. More than ever, we've been working together on training. For example, regarding long combination vehicles, we are all following the same training.

Transport committee  Mr. Chairman, simply, every time we have a new driver, they have to go through certain training, whether it's for dangerous goods or not. Shippers should have the same accountability. If there's a new employee, they should get proper training for dangerous goods: loading the truck, unloading the truck, and issuing the proper paperwork assigned to that type of product.

Transport committee  For the driver or—

Transport committee  You can start, Richard.

Transport committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. Good morning, everybody, and thank you for the opportunity to present to the committee as well. Essentially I'll echo Richard's comments. The APTA is obviously the body that represents the Atlantic provinces. With more than 300 members, most of them hauling dangerous goods, this is an important topic for us and something that we're following very closely.