Transport committee  No.

Transport committee  No.

Transport committee  No, we haven't. The safety management system is a framework.

Transport committee  That's my understanding, that's just my personal understanding.

Transport committee  Well, I wouldn't say it's entirely discretionary. We work together, we're in the same portfolio, so we share information.

Transport committee  No, and this was not the question we asked because when we were examining MMA, for example, we asked specifically about that railway, we didn't—

Transport committee  How it works is very close to what you described except for the last part. So let's take MMA, for example. If a railway decides to acquire additional lines, so expand the network, or abandon some of the lines, which was the case with MMA, they have to apply to the agency for the

Transport committee  No, unfortunately, I can't say that because we don't have any role in safety and we don't have inspectors on this.

Transport committee  No, we don't. To assess the safety record of a railway, we talk to our colleagues at Transport Canada, and we ask them to give us information specifically about that railway and what they know.

Transport committee  I believe so, but we ask specific questions. We are less interested in the framework. We're interested in whether or not Transport Canada performed any inspections on specific lines, and Transport will then share their reports with us. If they have any orders against specific par

Transport committee  Yes, your last expression I would agree with. As I mentioned in my presentation, we have analyzed the claims history of every federal railway over 10 years, and we never had a situation where those claims exceeded the levels of their insurance. Lac-Mégantic was clearly a unique,

Transport committee  I am aware of the various testimonies that were presented to this committee. There were some shippers representing chemical producers testifying. I can say that the creation of a pooled mechanism or some catastrophic insurance type fund is beyond the agency's authority and jurisd

Transport committee  In response to your first question, all submissions that were received by the agency are available on the agency website. They're completely public, so anybody can see, but we would be pleased to compile them for you and provide them.

Transport committee  It's a very complex issue. The railway companies in Canada have what is called common carrier obligations. The law prescribes railway companies to accept freight that is offered to them for carriage, and they're supposed to carry the freight that the shipper provides at a certain

Transport committee  I'll try to respond to this as best as I can. It might be interesting to note that in the United States, there is no requirement as there is in Canada for a railway to specifically acquire third party liability insurance. There is no government oversight or requirement in the Uni