I want to thank the officials for coming before us today.
I have a question that comes out of an article in the Toronto Star. To give you a bit of context, it says: As a growing number of train derailments raise public safety concerns, documents that contain a rail company’s safety plan — and play a key role in the regulation of the rail industry — are “locked up in a vault,” say some industry experts and safety advocates. Amid calls for increased transparency about rail companies and the products they carry, company-specific safety regimes — which detail practices, policies, employee training and more — are not available through Transport Canada. Although the federal regulator audits the safety plans, known as safety management systems (SMS), for compliance, a spokesperson said they’re “third-party information” and should be accessed through the companies.
Later on in the article, we read that retired Justice Virgil Moshansky believes that a penchant for secrecy concerning transport regulations documents continues. “Not disclosing”—a safety management plan—“is really an excuse to get around from disclosing faulty management systems or operations within the industry to the public.”
Can you comment on the fact that the public cannot access SMS plans and we really have no way of knowing whether the plans meet community needs and whether I need to be worried about a train rolling through my municipality?
In fact, in this article, contrary to what I think Monsieur Roussel said, the union raised questions about their lack of access to SMS plans in companies that they worked for.
Can you comment on that, Mr. McDonald?