The question would be whether it's exercised enough. That's where I hear some disagreement.
I want to move to the terms of reference for the advisory council. Thank you for tabling that today in front of us.
In general, I've seen many panels and working groups like this, but what I'm really worried about is the accountability of the work that comes out of it and whether it has any enforcement mechanisms or ability to move itself up the food chain, so to speak.
It's good to see that the unions are recognized here. I don't think the panel, in their report, recognized the input from the unions. I think that's very much a disservice, given the fact that they work every single day on these things. Nonetheless, at least their members are here.
But at the end of the day, if a working group is created over an issue—for example, derailments—and they come forth with a series of recommendations or a report and it gets back to the main body, what really can the main body then do with that report that has been worked on? They're only meeting twice a year by mandate. They can meet more often.
Potentially, on the surface it appears that there could be some good work that would come out of here. My fear relates to similar panels, such as the CAPC panel for automotive and a series of others, where the recommendations basically get posted on a website and sit for many, many months and you get just an occasional House of Commons question based upon the work that a panel has done and it has just basically been posted.
So perhaps you can tell us what type of teeth the work of this panel could actually have.