Thank you for the question.
The exact cost of the training is not known at this point, simply because what we're looking at is establishing a minimum criteria, at least for an awareness level. Because over 80% of the fire service in Canada is by volunteers, we have a very diverse fire service. It is a challenge to ensure that all people are trained to the same standard. Certainly, municipal resources in larger cities are far more prevalent than in some of the smaller communities. However, railway lines go through those communities, as we have seen. The last time that I presented to this committee, I applauded the efforts associated with the mutual aid and automatic aid responses, specifically within the Lac-Mégantic response area, because it really was a coordinated effort that helped deal with the situation. The reports arising from that show that there's a need for standardized training and resource allocation so that we can better respond to these emergencies in the future.
Much like the National Fire Protection Association's standard for hazardous materials training in general, there's an awareness level, an operations level, and a technical level. There would still be the autonomy within specific municipal sectors for smaller departments to gain at least an awareness level, and maybe a larger city could get to a technical level. However, right now there is no basis at all for at least an awareness level training program specific to class 3 flammable liquids, and that has to be absolute.