Federally, there is a grade crossing improvement program. That money is available to municipalities and railways to apply for an improvement, which could be grade separation.
There are two problems with the program. The biggest one is this problem, that I mentioned a moment ago, where the Canadian Transportation Agency has the right to open a crossing. They do so on an economic basis. They don't have a safety basis, and therefore, it is really not that difficult to open a new crossing. Transport Canada has the role of closing crossings on a safety basis.
Typically, if you're going to invest in an overpass and spend $25 million on an overpass. For the railway to be motivated to contribute to that, they would want to close crossings within the vicinity, so that there are fewer chances for accidents on the railway and the investment's made so that traffic goes over the overpass, or the underpass. However, because it's too easy, you might make that investment but then the municipality can apply for a crossing down the road. It's too easy to do that.
In my opinion, it's a machinery of government issue. It's a historical mistake where the agency has the role of opening new crossings. I don't think that previous policy-makers realized how many new crossings would be opened and did not appreciate the safety impact of that.
I think we need to make that change. We've actually suggested that to Mr. Emerson, who's conducting the review of the act right now.