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. We also represent some 65 railway supplier members who are important partners of Canada's great rail industry.
Canada's railways know that the safety discussion has taken on an even greater urgency and importance post-Lac-Mégantic. This tragedy deeply affected every railroader and every railroad in Canada. We know we are in a different environment now, and we accept our position with responsibility and humility.
Please allow me to speak to you briefly about the concrete measures we took since the Lac-Mégantic events, that is to say what we have done up till now, what we are doing currently and what we are determined to do.
Prior to Lac-Mégantic, Canada's rail industry had been working collaboratively with its regulators, unions, and other stakeholders on outstanding Transportation Safety Board recommendations and watch-list items. Our success rate at clearing TSB recommendations stands at 90%, which is good, but we still have some room for improvement. Importantly, the industry's efforts allowed the TSB to remove two rail safety items from its 2012 watch list: the implementation of rail safety management systems, and the operation of longer, heavier trains.
These efforts were in addition to the significant investments in plant, equipment, safety technology, training, and process improvement made by Canada's railways, and yet, unfortunately, the Lac-Mégantic tragedy occurred.
As you know, within days of the accident, the Transportation Safety Board issued two safety advisory letters concerning the securement of unattended trains, locomotives, and equipment. Transport Canada immediately followed these up with an emergency directive that covered these matters as well as the operation of single-person train crews. Canada's railways collaborated fully with Transport Canada in order to get these safety improvements in place immediately.
Similarly, when the TSB issued safety advisory letters concerning proper product labelling for crude oil, Transport Canada followed up with a protective direction. Again, the rail industry took immediate steps to put these new procedures in place.
In short, the industry had a strong record of collaborative safety action prior to the accident, and worked quickly with government to implement the new requirements identified to date as a result of the tragedy.
In addition to the ongoing investments, training, and operating improvements I just mentioned, the industry is undertaking a number of actions, including working with the Federation of Canadian Municipalities to enhance the supply of information concerning dangerous goods movement to local emergency responders, and redoubling our efforts on safety culture development by, among other things, developing safety culture assessment tools and making a commitment to safety culture a requirement for membership in the Railway Association of Canada.
We're developing principles for the use of in-cab audio and video recording systems as part of our safety management systems, which is a TSB recommendation.
Jointly with Transport Canada and local municipalities, we're redoubling our efforts on grade-crossing safety, including closing redundant crossings, upgrades at existing crossings, and education through the operation lifesaver program. We make about 2,000 presentations per year in operation lifesaver, working with government, police, unions, the media, public organizations, and the public themselves to spread the word.
We're requiring all non-pressure tank cars ordered for dangerous goods service after October 2011 to be of the enhanced design.
We're also redoubling our efforts for emergency preparedness through first responder training, dangerous goods training and outreach, such as TRANSCAER, as well as our own safety programs at the RAC. This year, we expect to train over 2,500 firefighters, about 600 industrial plant personnel, and over 200 railway employees. In the last five years, we've trained about 17,000 stakeholders across Canada.
We're also working with a number of associations, including the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers and the Canadian Association of Fire Chiefs on emergency preparedness, response training, and mutual aid.
We fully expect government action in other areas, and we're committed to working with regulators and stakeholders to put them in place. This could include accelerated removal from dangerous goods service of the legacy DOT-111 tank car fleet, enhanced insurance and compensation regimes, and regulations and measures flowing from the Railway Safety Act.
I'll just make one editorial comment, if I'm allowed, and that is that some choose to portray railway safety in Canada as deregulated or self-regulated, but I believe that nothing could be further from the truth.
The Railway Safety Act is a modern piece of legislation that has been extensively reviewed and updated since its passage in 1989. It provides for a robust regime of regulatory inspections, oversight, compliance, and enforcement actions, including recently enhanced administrative and judicial penalties against companies and individuals. In parallel with this regulatory regime, it requires each company to have its own safety management system with the attendant focus on proactive risk assessment and management, employee involvement, audit, and safety culture development. Those are requirements under the act.
With that, Mr. Chairman, I'll look forward to questions later.