I would like to start by thanking you for being here today. You have said some very important things, Mr. Rhodes, for this committee, which has just completed a study of the famous Safety Management System for air transportation. The example of the rail sector was given, where the SMS is in effect at the moment. We asked the representative of the Transportation Safety Board about this. We were told that there were fewer accidents in the rail sector, that is what Mr. Jean said earlier. However, the representative of the Board could not guarantee that the Safety Management System was responsible for the decline in accidents, that it explained why there were fewer accidents.
That is why I find your comments so valuable. What I find disturbing is this: you tell us that some accidents are not reported. There are some derailments that are not reported. With the Safety Management System there are no longer any inspectors in the field. So you are right, you don't see them anymore. There are fewer and fewer of them, because Transport Canada inspectors inspect the system. They do system audits with the company rather than determining whether the equipment is in good repair.
So you are telling us that there are some derailments that are not reported. That means that the Transportation Safety Board is not aware of them and that these accidents are not counted. Now I understand better why the Transportation Safety Board representative cannot confirm for me whether the Safety Management System in the rail sector accounted for the reduction in the number of accidents. You have told us that there are accidents, that there are derailments that are not counted because they are not reported. Is that in fact what you said?