Most of us can understand how the system evolved, where it came from historically, because there was a time when there wouldn't be a crew on the Great Lakes that wouldn't trust their captain, but in these days there's a lot more occupational mobility--at least I think there is--and the cargoes perhaps have changed from being wheat and iron ore and coal, and things like that, to perhaps other dangerous cargoes.
Where a lot of people missed this in the past, I guess the Auditor General spotted it. There's no backup mechanism to assure quality of those ships' masters. I was a deckhand on a ship for a couple of summers and it never occurred to me that there might be a problem, that my master wouldn't know the waters. These are inland waters, there are no tides, there are a few currents, rivers. There are a few tough spots in bad weather, but it's not a difficult system to navigate. The pilots were then seen as having a great gig. They had a great game. They could board the ship and snooze right through. I'm not saying they all did, but if you weren't sure how they did it, you could always check on the Laurentian side and see how they were doing.
Do you have any comment about whether at the end of this process you think there'll be a reasonable accommodation in the interests of safety? Do you think the ships' insurers will approve of this? Are they happy with it? And the ships' owners, the shipping industry, are they going to be comfortable with this?
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.