Mr. Speaker, obviously the member for Victoria has eloquently spoken to this issue and the Conservatives do not get it.
The reason there is a labour conflict is because they have not acted on safety. For a year and a half now we have had employees saying that there are safety issues. We have seen derailment after derailment and the Conservatives have done absolutely nothing, just like the Liberals before did absolutely nothing to address these issues.
Now they bring in a piece of legislation that is draconian and puts the whole rail system of CN in a permanent state of uncertainty. We do not know when the next derailment will be. With the escalating accident rate, we are talking about three to four major accidents every day. Every week there is a major stoppage on the system.
The employees come here and implore the government and parliamentarians from all four corners of the House to actually understand the situation as safety deteriorates but instead of addressing a single safety issue, the Conservatives say no, that they will simply give a blank cheque to Hunter Harrison, a blank cheque to CN and they can do whatever they want. That is irresponsible and reckless. It is not a government that takes its responsibilities seriously.
It is appalling that we have Conservatives who are ready and willing to put the interests of Hunter Harrison ahead of the interests of communities throughout British Columbia and right across the country. They have abdicated the public interest. They cannot sugar-coat it or whitewash it and pretend anything other than that they are giving a blank cheque to Hunter Harrison and CN to impose whatever conditions they want, regardless of what the safety impact is, regardless of what communities are impacted and regardless of how Canadians are impacted. We have seen loss of life. We have seen environmental devastation. We have seen communities cut off because CN has been irresponsible, and irresponsible management, obviously, is rewarded by the government.
Why does the member believe that the Conservatives are so willing to protect CN's management when they have been so reckless and irresponsible, particularly in British Columbia, and why do they seem to be taking the interests of American companies above and beyond the interests of ordinary Canadian families?