When we use federal railways, we have contractual agreements with the railway companies that require them to respect the Railway Safety Act Regulations. Therefore, based upon what we pay, we are certainly financing a portion of these tasks that serve to ensure that the railway companies are abiding by the regulations. If we are to carry out the same verification work, we will be responsible and accountable, as is presently set out in the bill.
This would mean that there would be an overlap between the management infrastructures. Unfortunately, such infrastructures come with a cost. Given that we are not a for-profit undertaking, a private enterprise, but a publicly-owned corporation, it is taxpayers who will be forced to pay for all of this.
There is also the matter of the value added through this. The act fulfils an objective. This objective will not be met if agencies like ours are included, because we achieve good results in the area of safety. We have a provincial act regarding railway safety. As for the federal laws we fall under, we respect them through contracts. This requirement would therefore be very costly.
You talked about the railway operator certificate, but the requirements pertaining to it are not defined. You mentioned that there might be consultations. As Mr. Kelsey stated, we would have liked there to have been consultations pertaining to Bill C-33, but there were none. Therefore, there is legislation and there are intentions, and we are going to work on what has been proposed.