Mr. Ferguson, can I ask you about capacity?
On rail safety now in the country, we're spending about $32 million a year. I know that's probably not a number that you're following closely. We've cut safety investments in marine safety, road safety, and airline safety quite significantly in the last three years.
It's been about steady on rail safety, but we're spending $32 million a year, which is $8 million less than the $40 million the government is spending on economic action plan advertising. That's another issue. I'll be coming to see you about that with my private member's bill to get that under control.
But I want to get a sense of the capacity conclusions you might have drawn here, because I can't square something else. We see a massive increase in the transportation of oil on rail, and no sign of this decelerating with the contemplated doubling of the exploitation of the oil sands and fixed capacity in pipelines, yet we're told by senior officials that they have all the capacity they need and all the inspectors they need. Nothing has changed. All has remained constant.
I'm trying to understand how that's possible. Can you help Canadians understand? Is there is a capacity problem when it comes to inspections and auditing on rail safety in Canada?