Transport committee  We would go with their advice because it's their operation and they know best. The only logical reason we can see for the government proposing what they proposed is that they're worried about their ability to see through the class 1s and to take enforcement action if they see a public safety issue.

Transport committee  Given those choices, clearly it has to be within the context of the SMS system within the individual corporation, but at the end of the day, they are the employees of the corporation, and that corporation has an obligation to deal with safety within its own operations.

Transport committee  Yes. I mean--

Transport committee  We're not going to argue. Employees can talk to anybody they want to talk to. But if you gave us those choices, our choice would always be to put the non-punitive reporting system in the context of the SMS.

Transport committee  We have to now. It's a requirement.

Transport committee  I can't—

Transport committee  I don't have the regulation in front of me, but we are now required to consult with the local municipality and others for anything we do that will in any way impact....

Transport committee  Let me speak to the two things. Number one, with regard to the jurisdictional issue—and I guess I'm a bit mystified because it already exists in the Aeronautics Act, and has existed for 40 or 50 years, and has not resulted, the last time I checked, in any major federal-provincial issues.

Transport committee  I'll ask my colleagues to comment, but I should make one observation to you. There are over 45,000 kilometres of rail in Canada. That makes the rail network one-third bigger than the national highway system. So this is a huge network we're talking about here. But I'll ask my colleagues to speak on the maintenance side, the inspection.

Transport committee  Let me start with the principle. The principle we operate on is that at the end of the day, yes, the government should very much oversee us on safety. At the end of the day, we are responsible for the safe operation of our industry, period. Let me just put that principle on the table, and then I'll ask Paul and Glen and John to make a comment specifically on this.

Transport committee  I'll ask my colleagues to comment, but no, we do get accidents on private crossings as well as on public crossings. We get them in both places.

Transport committee  I'm not sure, sir, that I would say there are specific obstacles. I think what has happened over time is that the country has grown topsy-turvy. We all know about urban sprawl and all that sort of thing. There's been any number of other issues that have occupied peoples' minds. This thing has just grown up over the years.

Transport committee  Yes, there is a correlation. The experience in the U.S. is very clear. As they have significantly reduced the number of crossings, or improved the existing crossings in terms of safety, they have seen a reduction in fatalities and injuries at crossings.

Transport committee  Exactly.

Transport committee  The way we define it today--and I'll ask my colleagues to speak to this--is through an SMS system. That's why we use “practicable” as opposed to “highest”. It is the highest practicable level of safety. We define it through a series of risk assessments and practices, and we measure against that performance over time.