Thank you, Mr. Barsalou-Duval.
Actually, yes, in the early 1990s, in anticipation of the Soligaz project in our area, which was to bury natural gas tanks in the City of Varennes, the rail cars that were to supply that project were going through the populated areas of our city, Varennes, with highly flammable materials.
At that time, I was the member of the National Assembly for that riding, and with the Quebec government, we'd considered making a bypass route to prevent highly explosive materials from passing through our populated areas. The federal government said no. This was at a time when CN, which controls the line, had not yet been privatized. You can imagine how much more difficult it is today to get a private company to design and study a rail bypass project.
What I would say to the committee somewhat reflects Mr. LePera's comments that industrial operation conditions have changed. This is not the late 1800s, when a lot of these railways were built and running through towns and villages to supply these communities with essential goods.
Today, quite to the contrary, the Government ofCanada, the Government of Quebec and other provinces are working to maximize the use of rail transportation for very commendable reasons, which are reducing greenhouse gases and other environmental considerations.
I feel it's now time for the federal government and the Department of Transportation to change their perception of rail relocation projects to a preventative perspective rather than ex post facto, as was the case in Lac‑Mégantic.
If rail is to play an increasingly important role in the transportation of hazardous materials, the federal government needs to be more receptive to plans to relocate railway lines in populated areas.