Good morning. It's good to see you again, Madam Chair.
Thank you for the invitation to appear before the Standing Committee on Public Accounts today.
As part of the audit of Transport Canada’s transportation of dangerous goods program, the commissioner of the environment and sustainable development issued five recommendations to Transport Canada.
At the outset, I would like to thank the interim commissioner and his team for their rigorous review of the program. We take very seriously the findings and the recommendations from this audit, and we've begun implementing them.
We also recognize and appreciate the value of this audit in helping us to continually improve our oversight and the safe transportation of dangerous goods in Canada and to deliver on our mission to be a world-class regulator.
As noted in the audit, Transport Canada has made some important progress in terms of addressing the earlier recommendations from the CESD. These include implementing agreements with all provinces and one territory to share data related to the transportation of dangerous goods, given that it is an area of shared effort between governments; clarifying requirements for the review and approval of the emergency response and assistance plans, the so-called ERAPs; and adopting a risk-based plan to target inspections.
Following the Lac-Mégantic tragedy, Transport Canada began a series of immediate and longer-term actions to further strengthen federal rail safety and the transportation of dangerous goods. Actions were taken under the following pillars: promoting open transparent government and community engagement, enhancing international collaboration, and reinforcing the oversight regime.
Transport Canada also amended regulations to impose stricter requirements on the securement of unattended trains and to require that railway companies carrying large volumes of dangerous goods reduce the speed of their trains.
Regarding oversight, the department has overseen the implementation of a more robust oversight regime in recent years. The number of oversight personnel employed by the transportation of dangerous goods program has quadrupled from around 30 inspectors to over 100, and approximately 5,900 inspections are planned in 2020, compared to 2,300 in 2012.
While these actions represent significant progress in improving rail safety and the transportation of dangerous goods, we fully accept the findings of the CESD regarding the need for further improvement. We have already started taking action and have implemented changes to address two of the five recommendations. The first relates to procedures and training for inspectors to ensure that follow-up on violations is undertaken by companies, and the second involves a more rigorous oversight process ensuring that facilities do not operate with expired registrations.
We are working on the other three recommendations, and they will be addressed over the next two years through continued improvements and the implementation of a national risk-based oversight system by refining and modernizing data collection efforts to better understand the national rate of compliance and the emerging risks in the transportation of dangerous goods and by addressing the delays in the final approval of the emergency response assistance plans.
Madam Chair, I should say that our progress in addressing these recommendations is closely related to the organizational transformation we've undertaken across all of Transport Canada, with the top priorities being shifting from paper-based to digital work processes, transforming our service delivery and modernizing our safety regulations and oversights.
In our safety oversight programs, we're working to use digital platforms and tools for our inspectors to enable our system to be responsive and risk based, to enable us to have common oversight processes and to make better and more effective use of data and analytics in driving our oversight program. The work under way to improve the TDG program is really an important element of this broader departmental strategy. For example, we're modernizing digital information systems and allowing for better capture and analysis of data to have a comprehensive risk-based oversight of regulated companies in this program. One example is the new TDG inspector information system, which is currently undergoing beta testing. We plan to roll it out in the spring of 2021. That will no longer allow inspections to be closed off or completed until there's a confirmation of follow-up.
In closing, we are committed to ensuring continued improvement in how we deliver our program to ensure safe transportation of dangerous goods in all modes of transport in Canada, and we would greatly appreciate the analysis, critiques and recommendations of the commissioner of the environment and sustainable development in informing and shaping our efforts.
My colleagues and I look forward to your questions and comments.