The people in the municipality are putting a lot of pressure on the municipal council, because it represents them. For example, courses were given in the train station located close to the rail line, but everyone cancelled their registration in January. After the derailment, nobody wanted to take courses in that place anymore. So the courses had to be reorganized in another building.
The people who live very close to the rail line often exert pressure. These are the people who organized the petition and collected signatures. People are extremely worried. When trains went by at low speeds, people slept well because they felt safe. But when this type of catastrophe happens, the catastrophe must be managed, including teams of firefighters and so on. Some municipal sectors are completely isolated. People feel powerless and are worried, and so they turn to us.
Since this has happened twice in three years, people don't believe that it won't happen again. The last time it did, CN told people not to worry because major repair work was being carried out and there would be no more reason to worry afterwards. But less than three months later, another derailment happened about 500 metres from the first one, but this time it happened on the west-east line. We were lucky because it did not happen at a time when people were coming out of the plant: it was 1:15 in the morning. If the derailment had happened when workers were just coming out of the plant, the death toll would have been huge because that is exactly where they would have been. Next door there is a co-op and houses. The people took pictures. The gentleman who lives in the white house put his house up for sale because he does not want to live there anymore. The value of the homes in that sector has fallen because of what happened.
People want the trains to slow down. Of course, we cannot demand that CN lay down a rail line outside of town, but it should be said that 10 or 15 years ago, south of Montmagny, there was what was called the Monk section. The rail line went through a place which was basically deserted and where there were very few homes. The rail lines was dismantled and transferred lower down; the opposite should have happened. The lower line should have remained in place for the tourist trains, or it should have been converted into a cycling path, instead of building the path 20 kilometres outside of town.
People have developed a railway psychosis. They are depressed and have asked me to fix the problem. We regularly speak with CN representatives. I even spoke with them last week. Today, the trains roll by at 40 miles/h. They used to travel at 30 miles/h and they have just started going at 40 miles/h. When I ask them to stay at 40 miles/h, they tell me that they might do this if no one else in Canada was aware of the situation. Unfortunately, I will not be able to—