Transport committee  I don't have a specific message to pass along. We are internationally governed, and it's important for us that it remains so, for consistency reasons. It's a key element, I think, in why the regime is successful, as the stats and very low number of incidents show. The reason, first of all, is that it's international and consistent, not only in the regulations themselves but also in the enforcement.

Transport committee  That's international. Those are international conventions, and then they imported into Canadian law via the Marine Liability Act.

Transport committee  Yes. Well, the standards are actually the limits of liability and the access to the international funds, because you have access to international funds when you reach excess liability.

Transport committee  Do you mean a classification society?

Transport committee  Yes, actually the ports and the terminals have all the information in advance. Not to [Technical difficulty--Editor] and so on and so forth. I don't know if they have it but it's certainly not something that is handled by the ports. The ship provides information to the port and terminals and to all the people who will be handling this cargo.

Transport committee  Well, that's something, you know, especially on the containers. On the bulk side, you know pretty much what you have in your ships' holds because very often you have surveyors, for example, when the things are put in the holds and you may have some testing or whatever. But when it's in containers you rely on what the shippers said and you rely on the documentation that the shipper provides, because they are the ones who put the things in the containers and seal the containers.

Transport committee  The shipowner does not make routine inspections of the containers. The only ones who will do inspections of containers are the customs administrators. They are the ones who can open containers.

Transport committee  Well, actually the companies you named are classification societies. In Canada we have all the worldwide classification societies, and all the reputable ones are part of an international association where all reputable shipowners want to find their classification societies. We don't have a pure Canadian one.

Transport committee  No, we don't do that. For example, if our members want container lines and are involved in [Inaudible--Editor] transportation, they will have to have their own training with specialized trainers to make sure that their people know that. Anyway they will have worldwide protocols, guidelines, and procedures that will apply in all the countries where they deal.

Transport committee  With respect to our ships, the Canadian regulations do import the UN IMO Code, so there are no differences. That's pretty much the same as far as our ships are concerned, so we have no issue with that.

Transport committee  Sorry, I lost part of it. Could you restate your question, please?

Transport committee  It has helped to implement a philosophy of continuous improvement and the culture of safety, so it has been a useful tool in helping that.

Transport committee  I remember when this was introduced about 15 years ago, everybody pulled their hair and said this was so difficult, so much paper, so much process. It was seen as very burdensome. However, after it was implemented and people started to work with it, they realized they could do it and it was useful.

Transport committee  Yes. Actually, on our side, the training we are providing to our members is the basic dangerous goods training. Under the Transportation of Dangerous Goods Act, any entity that deals with the transportation of dangerous goods has to make sure that all employees have appropriate training.

Transport committee  Right now, we don't. Because our fleet is international, we recruit people internationally. Of course, if Canadian sailors want to work on international ships, they can, as can people of other nationalities. We have a hard time keeping people for the long term in this industry and recruiting ships' officers who will stay long enough.