As I was saying earlier, we created the organization in the aftermath of the tragedy of 2013. Local business people decided to take charge of the situation and try to make something positive out of this tragedy. We therefore have partnered with institutions such as Université de Sherbrooke, CEGEP Beauce-Appalaches, which is in our region, and the Commission scolaire des Hauts-Cantons. This partnership will enable us to work with people who are at three different levels of education. We are also partners with CN rail and Desjardins.
As you know, there's only one training centre for first responders in Canada: the Justice Institute of British Columbia (JIBC). This institute is in Vancouver, more specifically in Maple Ridge, and provides services in English only. We want to create a similar training centre in Lac-Mégantic, in eastern Canada, and provide those services to francophones and anglophones on our territory. Since Canada is so vast, it is very expensive for people from Quebec, Ontario and the eastern provinces to attend training in the west, for instance in Vancouver. After the tragedy, we felt the desire to create a centre like that in Lac-Mégantic.
As you said earlier, Madam Chair, some members of the Standing Committee on Transport, Infrastructure and Communities came to Lac-Mégantic in June 2016. One of the committee's recommendations was for Transport Canada to work with the City of Lac-Mégantic to create a training centre. We are here today to talk about it again and to draw attention to the project.
We are asking that Transport Canada standardize and enforce the training for conductors and that the training be provided by accredited organizations. We are also asking that Transport Canada standardize and enforce specific training on risks associated with railway operations for first responders in railway communities. As we know, 1,200 cities in Canada have a railway. However, people there do not receive the necessary railway training. So that's what we are working on.
We have shared a brief with you. I'm not sure whether everyone has seen it, but we can answer any questions you may have about that document.