Transport Committee on March 10th, 2015

[The Chair, Conservative, Larry Miller]

We'll call our meeting to order. I'd like to thank the minister for being here today with us. Also with the minister we have Ms. Kinney, Mr. Lévesque, and Mr. Lapointe. I thank all of you for being here.

Just for the committee's benefit, everyone knows that we will have Minister Lebel here for the last half of the meeting, and if I have consent, we'll just deal with the motions for the supplementary and main estimates at that point. We'll save 10 minutes at the end of the meeting.

[Some hon. members]

Agreed.

[The Chair, Conservative, Larry Miller]

With that, Minister, we'll turn it over to you.

[Lisa Raitt, Conservative, Minister of Transport]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

Thank you very much to the committee for the invitation to be here today. As you already said, I'm joined by the deputy minister, Louis Lévesque. Also joining me are André Lapointe, the assistant deputy minister of corporate services and the chief financial officer; and Laureen Kinney, the assistant deputy minister for safety and security.

We are very pleased to be here today to address the supplementary estimates (C) for 2014-15, and our main estimates for 2015-16. I'd also like to take the opportunity to update the committee on various matters relating to transportation and, of course, the work of Transport Canada.

Obviously, the matter I consider to be the priority of the government when it comes to transportation is transportation safety. That matter is our ongoing effort to strengthen safety across all modes of transportation. The tragic accident that happened at Lac-Mégantic demonstrated very clearly why safety in preventing accidents has to remain our government's transportation priority. On February 20 of this year, I introduced legislation that, if passed, will make the rail industry and crude oil shippers even more accountable to Canadians. Bill C-52, the new safe and accountable rail act, proposes amendments to the Canada Transportation Act and the Railway Safety Act.

One of the things to do is to develop a new liability and compensation regime for federally regulated railways. This includes minimum insurance requirements, a compensation fund financed by levies on crude oil shippers, increased information-sharing provisions, and stronger oversight powers for the minister and Transport Canada.

I also announced the new railway safety management system regulations, 2015, which will require companies to develop and implement a formal framework that integrates safety into their daily operations.

In marine transportation, we continue to develop our world-class tanker safety system. Under this system we're implementing a comprehensive list of measures that will meet our ongoing commitments to responsibly transport our natural resources and to help protect our marine environment. We'll do this by enhancing our ability to prevent ship-source spills from happening in the first place, and clean them up quickly if they do occur and, of course, ensure that polluters pay.

To give you an example, last fall I announced that we'd provide up to $20 million over three years to Ocean Networks Canada for its smart ocean initiative, which supports the world-class tanker safety system. The funding will allow ONC to transform the oceanographic data it collects into navigational safety information that will help vessel operators and others avoid navigational hazards and prevent marine accidents.

In air transportation as well, safety is our priority. That's why last year Transport Canada took part in the International Civil Aviation Organization, or ICAO, task force on the risks to civil aviation arising from conflict zones. The work that task force carried out in 2014 is truly helping us better understand and address the risks that civilian aircraft face around the world. We also recently took part in ICAO's second high-level safety conference in Montreal, where Transport Canada presented working papers on the regulation of unmanned air vehicles, UAVs or drones, as they're often called. These papers complement the new safety guidelines for UAVs that I announced last fall, as well as a safety awareness campaign to help UAV users, both recreational and commercial, to understand the rules of the sky and always consider safety.

Now, while addressing safety, I would like to provide the committee with an update on our actions relating to the recent tank car derailment in northern Ontario. Transport Canada has inspectors and resources on site. Local first responders are there and are supported by CANUTEC, our 24-hour emergency response centre, whose scientists provide real-time information concerning any dangerous goods being transported. We also put into place and into play our national aerial surveillance team. They're flying over the scene, or they have flown over the scene, to assist the response to the derailment, and we continue to assist the Transportation Safety Board, which is leading the investigation into this incident.

Stepping back from what happened this week, our government has taken a number of actions already to address rail safety in the transportation of dangerous goods. We continue to train and hire inspectors. They carry out more frequent audits. We have removed the least crash-resistant DOT-111 tank cars from service. We require that DOT-111 tank cars that don't meet the new standards that we published this year be phased out within three years.

Also, we require emergency response assistance plans for trains transporting crude oil, gasoline, diesel, aviation fuel, and ethanol. We have developed regulations as well to update tank cars to a new model that requires thicker steel, half head-shield protection, and top-fitting production. Finally, we're working with the United States to develop a new standard of tank car used to transport flammable liquids, and we're expediting this work to harmonize tank car standards in all of North America.

All that being said, we are concerned with the number of derailments that have taken place in this area. We don't know what caused this derailment yet, but we expect that the company will fully cooperate with the Transportation Safety Board in its investigation.

At this point in my speech, Mr. Chair, I would make a request to the committee, if I may. I would like to ask that the committee consider calling CN to appear with regard to the recent derailments in Gogama, Ontario.

Mr. Chair, we continue to work to support Canada's economy. Last March, to address a backlog of grain on the Prairies and get grain moving faster in the short term, we required CN and CP to increase their capacity and carry minimum volumes of grain. Last November our government extended this grain volume requirement for railways until March 28 of this year, so CN and CP have to move minimum volumes of grain, subject to demand and corridor capacity.

We took these measures to support grain transportation and to help maintain the confidence of international customers in Canada as a reliable source of grain. Transport Canada reviews weekly reports on grain volumes that CN and CP submit to ensure that the railways are meeting their requirement.

Our government believes that measures such as these are necessary to help grain shippers move products to market and to maintain Canada's reputation as a world-class agricultural commodity supplier. Given that we are the world's fifth-largest exporter of grain, that reputation is important.

To support the efficient and strong trade that we have with the United States, we are continuing to advance the Detroit River international crossing. Last month I was pleased to confirm that, following significant discussions with both the United States and Michigan governments, Canada agreed to an arrangement regarding U.S. port of entry to ensure that the project proceeds without delay.

Under the terms of this deal, a public-private partnership will help design, finance, construct, operate, and maintain all components of the crossing, including the U.S. inspection plaza. The cost of the U.S. port of entry will be repaid from future toll revenues, and not by Canadian taxpayers. It's an arrangement that is good for Canada, because it allows us to move forward on the project on both sides of the U.S.-Canada border.

What we have achieved with the Detroit River international crossing is a really good example of the kinds of initiatives this government has pursued through our gateways and corridors program. That program was put in place to strengthen our transportation system and our infrastructure to make sure that we're supporting trade, not only here on our continent but with markets around the world as well. The Asia-Pacific gateway corridor initiative has seen an investment by us of about $1.4 billion. By connecting workers with jobs and products with markets, investments like these help our economy remain strong and competitive.

I close, Mr. Chair, by reminding the committee that last June we launched a comprehensive review of the Canada Transportation Act. It's being led by the Hon. David Emerson, and it really is an opportunity to review transportation policy in Canada to see how we can best support growth and how we can increase our domestic competitiveness and our international competitiveness as well.

It has been 14 years since we reviewed transportation policy in this country, and we need to know that we have modern measures for modern times. I'm sure that this review, which is at arm's length, will produce solid recommendations to help map out transportation plans for the future, and I look forward to input the members of the committee may want to make to the review as it continues to advance. These initiatives and the others demonstrate our actions to keep transportation in Canada safe, secure, efficient, and environmentally responsible.

I would conclude on a very personal note by saying thank you so much to the committee and by expressing my gratitude to you for your hard work and your dedication to these transportation files. I look forward to continued input throughout this end of Parliament. I would say that it has been since July of 2013 that we commenced on this road to making sure that modes of transport are safer in this country. I think we have accomplished a lot together, and I know we'll accomplish more.

That concludes my opening remarks, Mr. Chair. I'm happy to take any questions you may have, and if I don't have the specific answer, I will be asking my officials to help out, to make sure we get the right information.

[The Chair, Conservative, Larry Miller]

Thanks very much, Minister.

We'll go right to questions.

Mr. Mai.

[Hoang Mai, NDP, Brossard—La Prairie, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Minister, for being here today. It's a great pleasure for us to have you here, and hopefully you'll be able to answer a few questions that we have. For instance, as you know and as the TSB and Auditor General have mentioned, there is a lack of oversight with respect to Transport Canada and rail safety.

Can you tell us today how many inspectors there are in Transport Canada for dangerous goods and for rail safety?

[Lisa Raitt, Conservative, Halton, ON]

Yes, I can, Mr. Mai.

Go ahead, Deputy, tell them the numbers. You have the most up-to-date information.

We are prepared for that question today.

[Louis Lévesque, Deputy Minister, Transport, Infrastructure and Communities, Infrastructure Canada]

On the transportation of dangerous goods and rail safety, we currently have, as of the end of December, 117 rail safety oversight personnel, and on the transportation of dangerous goods we have about 94 on staff as of the end of December. These are both increases from the beginning of the year.

As the committee may be aware and as highlighted in the media, the department has been going full tilt on recruitment. In fact, we increased the complement in the department overall, on a net basis, by about 240 employees. A lot of them obviously are in security oversight.

[Hoang Mai, NDP, Brossard—La Prairie, QC]

So there are 117 inspectors for rail safety. That's one more than there were in 2013, when there were 116. For dangerous goods you said there are 94 staff. Is that inspectors, auditors—?

[Louis Lévesque]

These are people who are working on oversight.

[Hoang Mai, NDP, Brossard—La Prairie, QC]

How many inspectors are there?

[Louis Lévesque]

There are 94. That is the number.

[Hoang Mai, NDP, Brossard—La Prairie, QC]

Well, you have inspectors; you have auditors. Are they the same?

[Louis Lévesque]

The inspectors do both functions, audits and inspections. In the case of TDG, they do inspections. Also currently, in addition to our regular inspectors we have a poster out to our specialized auditors to do our SMS audits on rail safety, as committed to under the management action plan following the Auditor General's report.

[Hoang Mai, NDP, Brossard—La Prairie, QC]

Can you tell what the budget is for the rail safety directorate for 2015-16?

[André Lapointe, Assistant Deputy Minister and Chief Financial Officer, Corporate Services, Department of Transport]

The estimated budget for rail safety this year is $35,707,000.

[Hoang Mai, NDP, Brossard—La Prairie, QC]

So it's $35 million. Thank you very much.

If I look at motor vehicle safety, there is a budget reduction. When we look at the 2009 numbers, there was $34 million. Now we have $22.7 million in the budget. Why was there a reduction of close to 35% of the motor vehicle safety program?

[Lisa Raitt, Conservative, Halton, ON]

I appreciate the analysis from so many years ago. I think a helpful comparator would be from our 2014-15 main estimates, which, of course, were much lower than this year. In 2014-15 the number was $20,900,000, and this year it's $22,700,000.

I'm sure that the deputy or André can give you some input as to what the increases are.

[André Lapointe]

In the past few years we have made several important capital investments in our test centre in Blainville. Those are now complete, and so the budgets associated with them are disappearing.

[Hoang Mai, NDP, Brossard—La Prairie, QC]

Can we also have the number of inspectors with the motor vehicle safety program?

[Louis Lévesque]

The agents that we have are not truly inspectors, in the sense that they don't do inspections; they do analyses of events. They collect information, but we don't have the same powers under the Motor Vehicle Safety Act that we have under other legislation.

The other point I would want to make, in complement to the point made about rail safety and transportation of dangerous goods inspectors, is that I have given very specific instructions in the department that in the context of any event such as, for example, the event we are facing now in Gogama, any resources that are required in addition to the budget of resources will be provided from the department and so will not impact other inspections or operations in the department.

[Hoang Mai, NDP, Brossard—La Prairie, QC]

Well, regarding motor vehicle safety, as you know, the GM recall is a big issue. There, we had the minister say that Transport Canada was not aware of the faulty ignition switch issue, and we saw in the report that Transport Canada was aware. There is an issue on that front.

We are concerned about the budget reduction from 2009. There have been two deaths in Canada related to the faulty switch problem, and we haven't had all the answers on that that we want.

I'll move on now. Can you tell us how much was paid in railway penalties and fines last year, for instance?

[Lisa Raitt, Conservative, Halton, ON]

You're talking about in terms of infringements and whether or not there were any fines—

[Hoang Mai, NDP, Brossard—La Prairie, QC]

Yeah, for the infringement of security and safety regulations....

[Laureen Kinney, Assistant Deputy Minister, Safety and Security, Department of Transport]

The new administrative monetary penalties regime that provides for fines for non-compliance in rail safety has just been finalized and published in the Gazette, part 2. It will come into force April 1, 2015, and the department is ready to take any action at that point. But that program has just come into place and will be in effect on April 1.