As I was saying earlier, the first responders are not always members of our union. We have to be careful. People working on the tracks or in trains carrying hazardous materials also have to be aware of what the train is carrying. That seems necessary to me. In any situation, an employee who is not aware can cause anything from an incident to a major accident. In addition, first responders must at very least know which hazardous materials are moving through their communities so that the community can act in a safe and appropriate way when different incidents occur.
Let me give you an example. People are terrorized at the moment. Everyone here keeps up with the news, I am sure. As recently as yesterday, a number of communities in the area around Lac-Mégantic held a demonstration in the town to demand that the government relocate the tracks around the community.
People are afraid, and rightly so. Situations such as the ones we have just gone through must never happen again. Why are they afraid? Because they do not know what is in the trains going through their towns. Imagine! You live in a community, and I am sure that you would like to have the same information, in some fashion, for yours.
Some people will talk about terrorism and will say that, if that kind of information is released, it will open the door to all sorts of crazy people who might do something one day. That is not what we are asking for. No one is asking for the general public to be told what the train is carrying and when it is arriving. That is not so. We are asking that first responders at least be informed about when the train will arrive and what products it is carrying. They are trained and so they will know what to do if an incident or an accident occurs.
Let us not forget that the people in Lac-Mégantic were pouring water on the accident site for more than a day. That had environmental consequences. The oil soaked into the soil and ended up in the rivers and, from there, it spread everywhere. It would have been better to use a foam for an adequate response, but they did not have that equipment at hand. They had a tragic, catastrophic situation to deal with, but they could have avoided having to deal with an environmental disaster as well.