Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I want to say how disappointed I was with the decision.
I heard your explanation. I found out about this.... My understanding, first of all, is that there were calls made Friday afternoon between one o'clock and two o'clock by individuals interested in this meeting today. There was no indication at that time that there was going to be any change, so the three witnesses had come to Ottawa. One of them has since returned home. To get notification after five o'clock that the meeting had been cancelled was very disrespectful of the witnesses we had. They had to make personal plans to come here and had to prepare themselves for what would be questioning by this committee.
I appreciate your concern about the strike-lockout issue, but clearly with your skill as chair and this committee's general knowledge of procedure, we could have moved ahead and separated out the strike-lockout issue so that there wouldn't have been overlap. It's very easy. If a question crosses the line, the issues we're talking about here right now really relate to the two reports we have--the safety audit and phase one and phase two of the safety management study that was done by Transport Canada--and we need to begin the process. We still have derailments going on, and lives are at risk.
One of the gentlemen who's here today, Mr. Gordon Rhodes, himself had a near-death experience. He was one of the three members on that locomotive that jumped the tracks in Lillooet, and his two co-workers perished. But for the attention of one of his co-workers on another train ahead, he likely may not have been with us here today himself. It's very emotional, very stressful, for him to come here and be prepared to talk about the kinds of problems that he feels ended up happening in that situation, and other situations that he is aware of.
I think what we should do in this case.... We have Mr. Anderson, who is from Sioux Lookout, who I'm aware is in town, and Mr. Gordon Rhodes from British Columbia. John Holliday was here from British Columbia, but has since returned home, because it was advised that this meeting had been cancelled. On Wednesday the CN executives indicated to you that they would not be available. If we want them to be available, I think they would be, or they'd be in contempt if we direct them to be here--subpoena them--but I'm not attempting to agitate or inflame the current labour situation, the strike-lockout situation.
I think we should proceed, and I would suggest as a courtesy that we could proceed today to interview Mr. Rhodes, who is here, and then determine if Mr. Anderson and Mr. Holliday and indeed Mr. Rhodes wanted to come back again. If CN can't be here on Wednesday, then I'd suggest we invite the representatives of, first of all, the workers, and then we may want to ask Transport Canada sequentially, and then have CN come in if we want. I would have preferred to do the workers, CN, and Transport Canada.
I don't want to see this put off. I understand a report is being requested by the minister, but this is this committee's importance. We indicated that rail safety, air safety, and water safety were going to be priorities of this committee at the beginning of this year. We've dealt with issues on air safety, but the number of derailments that continue to carry on is incredible. It is maybe at a reduced rate, but it is still at a level that is far above acceptable to the Canadian public and certainly to this side of the committee, and I suspect most members of this committee are concerned about the safety risks that are involved in communities. We've got hazardous goods travelling through residential communities; we've got the safety of the rail workers themselves, the safety of the public, and safety of the environment, as we saw on the Cheakamus and at Lake Wabamun, situations in which, in the case of the Cheakamus River, the fish stock has been devastated for decades to come.
My suggestion would be that we invite the other two witnesses--and Mr. Rhodes if he wished to come back--to appear on Wednesday, and that we invite Mr. Rhodes right now, since he's here and took the trouble to appear as a witness today.