—it would be very, very expensive.
I began my comments by saying that our railroad truly appreciates the opportunity to come here to speak to this committee and to say that we are open to discussions. We will remain after the hearing to have more discussions. We will come back to Ottawa, if you so desire to hear from us, and continue these discussions.
These are serious issues. These are not things we take lightly. The fire chief mentioned a situation where we had somebody who didn't follow the protocols. Look, it's not an excuse. We take responsibility. We have 45,000 employees and somebody didn't do what they were supposed to do. Shame on us: we take the responsibility for that. But we are taking actions to address that, and we continue to listen to our communities and try to be responsive. It's not like we're saying no.
Regarding access issues, we've approached Transport Canada and asked them to become involved and work with us to find solutions. That meeting should take place here in the next several weeks. We're trying to be proactive and work with everybody.