By way of background, both CN and CP have declared that they are no longer subject to provincial legislation on drainage, yet they have complied with that for over 100 years.
The Ontario Drainage Act was the single first piece of business undertaken by the Ontario legislature when it was formed because it's so important to Ontario farmers. For 100 years, the federally regulated railways complied with it. Five years ago, they stopped and now municipalities are suing them.
In fact, there was no regulatory change or policy change. They found a loophole in the legislation when the railways act was morphed into the Canada Transportation Act and the Railway Safety Act.
Has the AAFC done no work on drainage in Ontario and other places with respect to federal legislation?