Thank you.
Welcome to our two guests from Transport Canada.
First of all, Mr. Chairman, I'd like to advise the committee that I did attend the panel's hearings in Vancouver. I had an opportunity, at Mr. Lewis's invitation, to explain what I felt the difference was between the work we were doing in this committee and the work the panel was doing, that they were indeed complementary, and the reason this committee had pursued the decision last October to proceed with this review.
To Mr. Grégoire, back in April this committee heard from Gord Rhodes, one of the gentlemen who was on the train that derailed in Lillooet. His two co-workers died in that locomotive. He said that, in his opinion, had Transport Canada's safety audits been released earlier--I'm going to the point you raised, that the information was not released--as had been previously promised by Jean Lapierre, minister at the time, it may have prevented some of these accidents.
When our committee met last November, I asked Deputy Minister Louis Ranger to release the audits. He replied that as a policy it does not disclose the results of these audits because they consist of third party information. I presume that's what you're responding to in your question on page three of the presentation you just made.
Do you think it makes sense that audits paid for by the Canadian taxpayer and conducted for the express purpose of public safety, whether it be for rail, aeronautics, or anything else we're doing as a committee of Parliament, only be made public through an access to information request and not to elected members of government such as are represented on this committee?