Transport Committee on Nov. 27th, 2013

[Gerard McDonald]

I think the technical detail of that question is probably beyond our expertise set at this point, Mr. Chair. But suffice it to say that the design of any car would take into account a great many factors, all of which have to be assessed in order to determine whether proposed changes are indeed going to be increasing safety, and whether increasing safety in one area might be in fact detrimental to something else.

[Jeff Watson, Conservative, Essex, ON]

Well, to follow that further, if you were to increase the thickness of the hull of a particular car, you could lower the capacity to carry a particular dangerous good, for example, to offset the increase in thickness. That could lengthen the train as well, though, could it not? If someone is committed to carrying a certain capacity of a dangerous good, they could presumably lengthen a train. If the choice were to have a thicker hull with less capacity, it could lengthen the train, I guess is what I'm trying to say. Is that fair enough?

[Gerard McDonald]

Potentially, yes.

[Jeff Watson, Conservative, Essex, ON]

Is the issue with DOT-111s puncture or shear? I wasn't aware that it was puncture; I thought it was the issue of shear. Is that fair enough? Does anyone know?

[Marie-France Dagenais]

I'm sorry, but under normal conditions of transport of DOT-111s, they won't identify any major issues with safety in terms of no more than shear or puncture. There was not one more than the other.

[Jeff Watson, Conservative, Essex, ON]

You used “normal”. Is there an abnormal way to...?

[Marie-France Dagenais]

Yes—

[Jeff Watson, Conservative, Essex, ON]

What would that be?

[Marie-France Dagenais]

—because standard tank cars are tested to a certain speed. Depending on the certain types of impact, depending on the type of accident that happens, it cannot be—

[Jeff Watson, Conservative, Essex, ON]

So at 100 kilometres per hour, there's probably no car that's going to survive something of that magnitude.

[Marie-France Dagenais]

It would be questionable.

[Jeff Watson, Conservative, Essex, ON]

Fair enough.

I don't know if I have any more questions, Mr. Chair. That's good.

[The Chair, Conservative, Larry Miller]

Okay.

You have a minute and a half. Does anyone want to...?

Ms. Young?

[Wai Young, Conservative, Vancouver South, BC]

How much time do we have left, Mr. Chair?

[The Chair, Conservative, Larry Miller]

You have one minute and 20 seconds.

[Wai Young, Conservative, Vancouver South, BC]

All right. Well, I guess no. That's too little time because I want to start a whole other thing and that's not going to be enough.

[A voice]

Go for it. Start.

[David McGuinty, Liberal, Ottawa South, ON]

Mr. Chair, I have a point of order, if I could go next.

Excuse me, I don't want to interrupt.

[The Chair, Conservative, Larry Miller]

A point of order?

[David McGuinty, Liberal, Ottawa South, ON]

I'm sorry. I wasn't sure whether Ms.—

[The Chair, Conservative, Larry Miller]

You have time for a question, Ms. Young, if you want.

[Wai Young, Conservative, Vancouver South, BC]

We did receive this really good report form the Library of Parliament, and they did talk about the compliance with the requirements and ability to respond. We touched upon that earlier around compliance, and you were very clear about some of those aspects, which I appreciate, so thank you so much. But once again I want to ask you if that applied to all three modes of transport, or are they different?

[Marie-France Dagenais]

No, they all apply to the three modes of transport.

[Wai Young, Conservative, Vancouver South, BC]

So it's similar?

[Marie-France Dagenais]

Yes.