Transport committee  Well, I love the term “precision railroading” because—

Transport committee  If you were to talk to most of the customers of the railways, you'd find that they would acknowledge that service has improved. I'm not saying that if we were sitting here five years ago, I wouldn't have an argument. But over the five years service has improved, and I provided some evidence of that in my opening statement, with third-party surveys that confirm that.

Transport committee  Yes, sure, they'll be on the record. Anything you want, statistics-wise—

Transport committee  Yes, like freight rates, for example, they are available. We'd happily provide it. The RBC survey, yes....

Transport committee  The other related issue that was brought up is the condition of cars. The rail company doesn't load the car; the customer does. Often there is damage done to the car, and then it goes to the next destination and the railway is responsible for it but it didn't do or know about the damage, because it happened in loading.

Transport committee  I would rather just proceed [Technical Difficulty—Editor], if it's okay with you.

Transport committee  Good morning, Mr. Chair and members of the committee. Thank you for the opportunity to speak with you today. My name is Michael Bourque, and I am president of the Railway Association of Canada. I'm delighted to be here with my colleagues from CN and CP. Our association represents most of the railways in Canada, mainline railroads like CN and CP, some 40 short-line railroads, VIA Rail, commuter railways such as GO and AMT, as well as tourist railways, including the famous Rocky Mountaineer.

Transport committee  I am going to answer the questions about the Auditor General's report in English, and afterwards, I am going to ask the CN representatives to reply to the question that concerned them. I'm going to answer the Auditor General question, and then CN can answer the question for their company.

Transport committee  Thanks for asking that question, because I think there has been a lot of misunderstanding around this. I was quite close to it, because I was involved with Transport Canada, the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, the fire chiefs, and the industry in putting together the agreement that we have.

Transport committee  It wasn't so long ago that the RCMP foiled a plot by al-Qaeda agents in this country to blow up a VIA train. We shouldn't take it for granted that because we haven't had a serious security incident in this country lately it isn't an ongoing threat. We would jeopardize our trade relationship with the United States, who feel very strongly that we shouldn't provide that kind of live information.

Transport committee  Let me start with that, since there are a number of short lines in our membership. I want to assure you that we asked ourselves all of those same questions after that terrible accident. That's one of the reasons we have instituted a new measure where we will require a commitment to safety culture as part of membership in the Railway Association of Canada.

Transport committee  Good afternoon, Mr. Chairman, and members of the committee. Thank you. I want to begin by saying that safety is of the utmost importance to the railway industry. Our members are committed to safety and are constantly looking for ways to improve their performance whether it's through training, risk assessment, infrastructure investments, or technology.

Transport committee  Federally, there is a grade crossing improvement program. That money is available to municipalities and railways to apply for an improvement, which could be grade separation. There are two problems with the program. The biggest one is this problem, that I mentioned a moment ago, where the Canadian Transportation Agency has the right to open a crossing.

Transport committee  For our part, I don't disagree with what you've said. Our position is essentially that the act already provides that authority. If the government believes that this authority is not strong enough and they want to strengthen the language in the new act, which is going to supersede this private member's bill, then there's probably a good reason for it.

Transport committee  The reason that in my remarks today I went beyond Bill C-627 is precisely because I think there are a number of proactive steps that legislators can take with respect to crossing safety. There are a number of very important changes that need to be made if we're going to improve crossing safety in this country.