Thank you, Mr. Chair.
First of all, I was a little disappointed to hear all of the blame being placed at the feet of our officials, because ultimately it's the regulatory and statutory framework that hamstrings your ability to do what you believe needs to be done. In fact, I go back to Mr. Grégoire's testimony, and just to quote one sentence, he states that “it has become apparent that the current regulatory framework may not provide the full set of tools to effectively deal with them”--referring to accidents.
My concern is this: is it even possible to prevent all rail accidents? And a follow-up question would be, is it possible, at the very least, to avoid and prevent fatalities in an absolute way, especially those arising out of derailments; and is there a safety standard, whether an American standard or a Canadian standard or a provincial standard like we have in British Columbia, that can be beefed up enough so that we don't have the ongoing stories of people losing their lives because of derailments?