You're going to see very soon, sir. It's a summary of what's taken place since some of the accidents. Certainly 2005 was what you would call less than a banner year in relation to what took place with CN and just generally with railway safety.
Less than a month after the British Columbia derailment, in which two crew members, unfortunately, were killed as a result of the accident, the minister took it upon himself to issue, for the first time ever, a ministerial order, under section 32, to make CN come into compliance with some of the other.... I think there were something along the lines of 59 enforcement actions.
Of course, there has been an action plan, as Mr. Bell said, put forward, as of October 18. Indeed, you'll see, since some of the actions were taken by this government and the previous government, that industry-wide accidents are down by 14%, and derailments are down by 30%. Obviously the corrective actions did do something.
Notwithstanding all of that, Mr. Bell, with respect—and I was born in British Columbia, and it has a place in my heart and always will—we are a national committee, and we have a responsibility, I think, to all Canadians. Certainly, I think, the people in Alberta who suffered the response from Wabamun would like to be part of any kind of study. As has been said by all members here, rail safety, airline safety, and all safety issues are a number one priority of this committee and a number one priority, quite frankly, of this government.
So I think we're being a little bit premature in doing, first of all, a study just of British Columbia, and I would like to encourage all members of this committee to include all of Canada and all Canadians in any rail safety study that's done by the committee.
Quite frankly, I would invite the members to read what took place and what has happened with this government and the previous government, and then address one particular question: what else could have been done? I don't think anything further could have been done, except to stop all the railroads across Canada. And I don't think anybody wants that to happen. Certainly the minister, within 28 days of the final episode in B.C., issued a ministerial order, and as I said, that has never been done before.
I would invite the members to read this report and come back with any suggestions. But the reality is that we have a very busy agenda. The first thing after Bill C-11 is safety of the transportation sector across Canada.
Quite frankly, I don't want to just study British Columbia. All geographic areas of this country place certain challenges before us, and we have to study rail safety across the board and across Canada to do justice to all Canadians.
I would recommend, though--and I think Mr. Bell has brought up a good point--that the safety study should not just include what we were going to study, but should have a specific emphasis on employees, on people who are users of the rail line, and on the environment. So a particular emphasis on those would be appropriate--not in this particular motion, but certainly, if it be the will of the committee, we should study them at great length, as far as safety goes.