Thank you, Chair.
Let me first clarify something with respect to the emergency directive issued under section 33 of the Railway Safety Act. Mr. Sullivan had alluded to it earlier, somehow, as if the TSB made a recommendation that trains should be diverted around municipalities. In fact, that is not the case. If one goes to the website you'll be able to read what the Transportation Safety Board's recommendation actually is. I'll quote it for the record:
The Department of Transport set stringent criteria for the operation of trains carrying dangerous goods, and require railway companies to conduct route planning and analysis as well as perform periodic risk assessments to ensure that risk control measures work.
So the TSB's recommendation was that the railway companies be compelled to do route planning analysis and risk assessment. They further recommended that in the U.S. They said Circular No. OT-55 and/or similar operating restrictions were necessary to alleviate many of the shortcomings. I invite anyone to take a look at the emergency directive pursuant to section 33 that is consistent with OT-55, and the government has fulfilled its objectives in that.
Further, I want to state for the record that I'm not sure that the issue for the NDP is the public's right to know, but the ability of communities to veto trains coming through their communities, if they don't like what's on the train. I think that's the real objective here, and if that were the case then nothing would be transported in this country.
I want to ask Mr. Ballantyne a question. We have had witnesses who've addressed the question of liability at this table. Liability in the case of needing to clean up, for example. That hasn't been addressed, or I didn't hear it in your comments, but I would like your perspective on this. We had shippers who were here, in particular the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, who suggested that liability belongs only to the railway companies. Is that a position that your membership share, or should shippers also bear some of the responsibility for the liability and not, in the end, taxpayers?