Justice committee  It's kind of funny because I was quite involved in the 2010 Olympics, and there was a risk and threat assessment done by the RCMP and CSIS. They actually identified that the worst threat was a transport of propane or a fuel tank. That was more dangerous than a nuclear threat, so I think it's there and it needs to be looked at, but I wouldn't say that it's the highest threat right now.

Justice committee  Good afternoon. My name is Marie-France Dagenais, and I'm the director general, transportation of dangerous goods, for Transport Canada. The transport of dangerous goods program deals mostly with the safe transport of the United Nation's nine classes of dangerous goods. Some of the issues raised by this proposed legislation fall exclusively on class seven, nuclear material, which falls mostly under the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission mandate, as indicated by Mr.

Transport committee  Well, what I--

Transport committee  I agree.

Transport committee  No, I'm sorry. I must admit I didn't see it. I just got stuck on the words “shall” and “may”. As I said before, I think if you create an obligation for--

Transport committee  No, I don't have any political point of view. I'm just here to make sure that when we pass regulations, and the regulations are all agreed on by all our stakeholders, by industry, territories, and provinces, and we end up having a consensus, then I don't understand why the regulation needs to be reviewed by a committee and give you more business than--

Transport committee  I am actually a lawyer, so.... The way we do our consultation process in the directorate is quite extensive already. As I previously said, in section 30 of the current act there is a process that we don't necessarily have to follow, if you consider Treasury Board guidelines. But we do it, because we have a program that works very well: the industry is on board, we have a sharing agreement with the provinces and territories, and we consult a lot on our regulations already.

Transport committee  One of the major differences is that one is mandatory and the other is discretionary. The mandatory element means that each proposed regulation must be submitted to the committee. The other amendment suggests that it is up to people’s discretion, depending on the complaints or the comments provided.

Transport committee  There are still some implications, of course, but it is easier to manage. If everyone is in agreement, if the people who work together with us, our stakeholders, support the amendments we propose, we do not see why there needs to be a review. We understand that there could perhaps be a review if comments are made.

Transport committee  That is provided for in the application.

Transport committee  If the statutory authority prevents it, we will not be able to include it in our form. We will have to take it out, in fact. At the moment, security clearance applications contain a statement saying that someone coming from another country consents to having his information checked.

Transport committee  That is what we are trying to achieve.

Transport committee  When we have reached agreement with the Americans about the research and the investigations to be conducted, they will know that we have done the appropriate checking. When a security clearance is given to somebody, they will know that the person meets our requirements. They will accept the card at face value.

Transport committee  No.

Transport committee  Correct. But the regulatory process, as I say, goes through very rigorous consultation. We will be made aware of any problems or comments, and we'll take them into consideration, as we always do.