Mr. Speaker, I have a comment. Although at the end of his speech the member said that we have a national railway policy, sometimes I am not so sure that we have one. Our policy in recent years has turned over half of our railways, that is to say the CNR, to American shareholders. That is not something which I think is in the best interests of the country.
I want to commend the hon. member for raising the point about the longer trains. That is what I came to the House to talk about. He talked about 110-car unit trains. However, I have information in my office, given to me by people who work on the railways, which concerns trains of 157 cars. We are talking about trains that, instead of being 5,000 or 6,000 feet long, which was long anyway, are 10,000 feet long. These trains have absolutely no possibility of clearing a crossing in the required time.
The most recent regulations are very vague with respect to what is required of the railways in terms of clearing crossings in a certain time. They have been made deliberately vague so that the railways cannot be held to account for what they are now doing. What they are now doing is having longer and longer trains.
This raises the problem that the member brought forward, not just with respect to the clearing of crossings and the obvious safety aspects concerning ambulances and emergency procedures, not to mention just plain hassles for people who should not be held up that long, but the time it takes to stop and the fact that they are running these trains with fewer units, so that when trains break down they are stuck for longer periods of time.
I want to reinforce the point that the hon. member made. The government, instead of looking somewhat amused by the point that I am making, which the member made before me, should take this very seriously. Some day somebody they know could be at a crossing, lying in an ambulance, wondering why they cannot proceed. They have to wait for the trains running this way, in defiance of safety concerns, merely so the American shareholders who own CN can make more money.
That is what has happened since CN was taken over by American shareholders. At one point, when it was run by the government, there was some notion of safety and the public good. Now everything is according to the bottom line. Everything is according to what Hunter Harrison wants so that he can please the shareholders in Chicago, Philadelphia, New Orleans or wherever they are. Who cares what happens in Transcona? Who cares what happens in Saskatchewan? That is just a place to make money. That is just a place to have Paul Tellier make more money, thanks to the plan that the Liberals foisted on this country.
It is a shameful and disgusting tragedy for which these people will be held accountable. A hundred years from now they will still be talking about the betrayal of Canada that was foisted on this country by that bunch.