Mr. Chair, first of all, let me quote from the Auditor General's report in general, where it states that: “We did not examine the safety of federal and other railways’ operations. We also did not examine the overall safety of Canada’s rail industry”.
I stand by my comments about the safety of our rail industry and the importance of making it safer.
With respect to the recommendations, we did thank the Auditor General for his report and his recommendations because, clearly, a 26% audit is unacceptable. That is why the department was asked for a rail safety Office of the Auditor General action plan, which I have a copy of. The department is marked against it in terms of benchmarking. It has provided complete timelines; timely completion dates, which are needed; and it is monitored by me and my office on an ongoing basis.
With respect to audits and auditors in training, in the spring of this year, all 100 inspectors will have the ability to conduct audits and they will be trained up. We will continue to hit those marks of 30,000-plus inspections each year, which are inspections that are exceeding greatly what we have done in the past.
I can tell members that I said, when this report came out first in November, that should the department not be adhering to its action plan, I would not hesitate to ask the Auditor General to come back to review to ensure that this work is carried out. I stand by that statement now as well.