Transport committee  Let me give you a correlation. I just participated in a settlement for the port of Vancouver in which there were 180 owners, 1,200 or 1,300 non-union truckers, 350 unionized truckers, the provincial government, the federal government, and the port of Vancouver. Now, try to find a

Transport committee  I know.

Transport committee  Not a problem. I rent out my services cheap.

Transport committee  Look, you're not going to get any disagreement with us on the role of the government as it relates to regulations, inspections. Think about it. I live in Milton. I live about two miles from a government truck inspection station. Sprinkled right across the country in every provinc

Transport committee  Yes. We do the annual surveys, but we do it every day. The preoccupation of health and safety is something that's really driven. I'm in a joint program, but it's something that's discussed every single day with our shop stewards, with our union leadership, and with our membership

Transport committee  Correct.

Transport committee  That is correct.

Transport committee  That is correct. You will find even Hunter Harrison is saying they should be eliminated.

Transport committee  Correct.

Transport committee  There's no question that for the safety culture, everybody has to be involved in it, whether you're running the company or you work for the company. I'm not sure I share the same sentiment that somehow the employees' input as it relates to safety, or their version of events, is

Transport committee  Both of us are going to answer that question. Number one, I think the regulations have to be very specific. I believe that in an industry that's profit driven—and I'm not suggesting, by the way, that “profit” is a nasty word. I'm not suggesting that at all. But what I am suggest

Transport committee  Let me ask you this question. Can you imagine if we regulated the airline industry this way? You don't have a quarrel with us as it relates to regulation. Let's take this another step further. I won't talk about VIA, but I'll talk about the transportation of dangerous crude. Fi

Transport committee  Absolutely. He can go ahead first, and then I'll complement what he says.

Transport committee  MMA was given an exemption because of money, period. When we deregulated the industry and it went into private hands, it became about a profit-sharing centre as opposed to a public service. So it's about money. That's why the only way that we can deal with this is through specif

Transport committee  Thank you, Chair and members of the committee, for inviting Unifor to discuss our union's perspective on the future of rail safety in Canada as it relates to the transportation of dangerous goods and safety management systems, or SMS. By way of introduction, I am Jerry Dias, nat