Evidence of meeting #3 for Transport, Infrastructure and Communities in the 41st Parliament, 2nd session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was company.
A video is available from Parliament.
Assistant Deputy Minister, Safety and Security, Department of Transport
That's with respect to the rail side.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Larry Miller
Your time has expired, Mr. Toet.
Just to make the best use of our time, we're going to have each party ask another question, but you're going to get about three minutes each.
Ms. Crowder, you have three minutes, and then I'll move to Mr. McGuinty.
NDP
Jean Crowder NDP Nanaimo—Cowichan, BC
Thank you.
A number of times I've heard people talk about risk assessment. The 2011 report of the Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development indicated that “there is no national risk-based compliance inspection plan”, and the same report indicated they “found that Transport Canada does not have a national risk-based process for determining the sites that should be the highest priority for inspection”, and “information necessary for inspectors to effectively plan or conduct their work is missing or incomplete”.
Since 2011, what specific steps have you put in place to ensure that Transport Canada could do an adequate risk assessment?
Assistant Deputy Minister, Safety and Security, Department of Transport
I'll ask Madam Dagenais to respond to that.
There's been a lot of work done in that regard.
Director General, Transportation of Dangerous Goods, Department of Transport
Yes.
The recommendation was to have a national plan. What is indicated in the report is that they were regional plans and they were drafted a bit differently. What we have decided to do, and it's part of an implementation plan, part of the recommendation, is to have a national risk-based approach.
NDP
Jean Crowder NDP Nanaimo—Cowichan, BC
Okay, but we had two regions that didn't have one. The prairie region and northern region had no documentation to provide on the inspection plan, so not all regions did have a plan.
Director General, Transportation of Dangerous Goods, Department of Transport
They have a plan. It may not have been properly documented.
What we have done in the past two years is to develop a national risk-based approach. We are doing our inspections on a risk-based approach. We have developed a risk tool that identifies criteria for where our inspection should be targeted. These are identified as being the higher risk, and this is where we do most of our inspections. It can be dependent on the type of goods that are transported, the means of containment that is used, and whether it's an ERAPable product, because emergency response plan products are usually highly dangerous.
Depending on the criteria we identify the risk, and this is how we plan our inspection.
Director General, Transportation of Dangerous Goods, Department of Transport
No, it's not available publicly.
NDP
Jean Crowder NDP Nanaimo—Cowichan, BC
When you said that's not available publicly, the public has no way of knowing what kind of risk assessment is used depending on which transportation sector it is. Is that correct?
Director General, Transportation of Dangerous Goods, Department of Transport
Basically our criteria are identified. They are public. They are on our website. We do have identification of the different criteria.
What we don't put in there is what we have done on the specific inspection and the specific site.
NDP
Jean Crowder NDP Nanaimo—Cowichan, BC
Okay, so the public could understand the process, but they won't have access to the actual risk assessment that's done on any particular sector or particular type of good.
Director General, Transportation of Dangerous Goods, Department of Transport
Yes, that's correct.
NDP
Jean Crowder NDP Nanaimo—Cowichan, BC
With regard to the compliance piece of it, I've heard a lot about audits.
I assume there's some sort of a grid that the highest risk gets the audit or the compliance.
Director General, Transportation of Dangerous Goods, Department of Transport
The highest risk gets the inspection.
Under the TDG program, we do targeted inspections of high-risk sites. We concentrate our inspection on shippers, needs and containment facilities, manufacturers, and producers.
NDP
Jean Crowder NDP Nanaimo—Cowichan, BC
Do you know how many audits are conducted on the highest risk sites?
Director General, Transportation of Dangerous Goods, Department of Transport
About 3,000 per year.
Director General, Transportation of Dangerous Goods, Department of Transport
Jean Crowder NDP Nanaimo—Cowichan, BC
Out of those 3,000 inspections, how many would you say are in compliance?
Director General, Transportation of Dangerous Goods, Department of Transport
According to our compliance performance, about 60% of our sites are compliant.
