Mr. Speaker, I will begin with an apology because I was quite heated in my last intervention but the reality is that I have spent time around the rail yards and around the activities where people, on a day to day basis, put themselves in jeopardy with the moving equipment,. When the moving equipment comes together it causes significant damage, particularly if a person is trapped. I was speaking on that a moment ago.
What I am concerned about is that we are being told by the people, through their negotiation process, that there are serious problems. They told us that they chose to go on strike because they tried to use the collective bargaining process to draw those particular concerns to the government and to their management.
I must again apologize because this is so close to my heart, but the reality is that there is a question of safety across this country that must be addressed. Some would like to dismiss it and say that bargaining is not the place to do it. Where else do the workers have the opportunity to put forward their case and to bring it before the Parliament of this country and before the government of this country?
The reality for those workers is that their lives are in jeopardy. The reality, as well, are the derailments that we have heard about repeatedly here today. One need only look south of the border where it deregulated the rail lines down there and then look at the mess it has and at the communities that have had explosions--