Evidence of meeting #23 for Public Accounts in the 41st Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was transport.
A video is available from Parliament.
Conservative
Ted Falk Conservative Provencher, MB
Okay. Yes, I would suggest maybe five years. In my other life, the heavy construction business, there's a national program called COR certification. My company gets audited every three years from an external audit, but we perform our own internal audits on a yearly basis.
I would hope that a five-year cycle isn't something the railways would be striving for outside of yearly audits. But you're telling me that they do have yearly inspections, which is a lesser—
Director General, Rail Safety, Department of Transport
It's part of the safety management system regulation that they have to perform audits of their own system.
Conservative
Ted Falk Conservative Provencher, MB
In light of that, do you think a five-year cycle is appropriate?
Director General, Rail Safety, Department of Transport
It's not five years for them; it's for us. For them, they will do it on a regular basis.
Conservative
Ted Falk Conservative Provencher, MB
I can appreciate that. Thank you.
Mr. Ferguson, on page 6 of your report there is a table outlining the total number of accidents dating back from 2002 to 2012, part of which was the term of your audit. To me there has been what looks like a steady decline in the number of total accidents throughout that period. The information we have received is that there was a significant increase in the volume of freight that was moved throughout that same period.
What this doesn't tell me is on a percentage basis, in terms of the kilometres travelled or the amount of freight moved, what the accident rate has been. Do you have any information that would help us with that?
Auditor General of Canada, Office of the Auditor General of Canada
I certainly don't have that information, no. I'm sure the department would have that type of information.
Conservative
Ted Falk Conservative Provencher, MB
I think it's something that would be very relevant. It would be another way in which we could identify whether or not the safety management system employed and utilized by the railways is effective.
To me, it looks like it is effective. Given the general understanding that there has been an increase in volume and traffic and the total number of accidents has been going down, I would suggest to you that something that the railways are doing is effective. It would be nice to know what that is. We would see it clearly if we were able to identify the percentage or a ratio.
Associate Assistant Deputy Minister, Safety and Security Group, Department of Transport
The Transportation Safety Board collects reports of all types of occurrences and accidents. They provide on their website a significant amount of data on the rate of accidents in particular segments of the industry. That's the same data we use for our analysis.
The Chair NDP David Christopherson
Just like that; it's just the way life goes.
Colleagues, that exhausts our usual rotation.
Thank you to our guests for being here today.
Mr. Ferguson, as always, we appreciate the work you do on behalf of the Canadian people.
To Monsieur Lévesque and your staff, thank you very much for your forthright answers. We appreciate your being here.
Colleagues, unless there is an intervention to the contrary, I bring this meeting to a conclusion.