Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I join my colleagues in welcoming you, Mr. Ferguson, and your officials today.
I'm also going to focus on railway safety and the oversight factors there.
In your report you mention that Transport Canada has implemented a regulatory framework for rail transportation that functionally centres on a safety management system, an elevated level of safety management, SMS, as you referred to it in the audit, that's designed to identify, analyze, and respond to railway safety risks, and that it has made progress in working with federal railways to implement safety management systems.
You note that the railway sector in particular has experienced unique difficulties with respect to the implementation of SMS. I wonder if you could speculate on or speak to the reason for these difficulties and what the government and/or the rail industry could do to facilitate the efficient and effective implementation of SMS.
In a similar vein, are these difficulties applicable to both class I and class II railways, or are they unique to short-line operators specifically?
I wonder if you could answer those specifically.