Evidence of meeting #49 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 crossing.
A video is available from Parliament.
Conservative
Peter Braid Conservative Kitchener—Waterloo, ON
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair, and thank you to the representatives for being here today.
I have just a couple of questions, in my remaining time, surrounding the derailment in Gogama on March 7.
Can you tell us how recently before the March 7 derailment you had conducted track inspections in that area?
Executive Vice-President and Chief Operating Officer, Canadian National Railway Company
Michael, do you remember? It was just a couple of days before or the day before.
Michael Farkouh Vice-President, Safety and Sustainability, Canadian National Railway Company
That is correct. Just a couple of days before, we had some inspections that had taken place to review the integrity of the track.
Conservative
Vice-President, Safety and Sustainability, Canadian National Railway Company
The resulting inspection showed no anomaly with the track at the given time.
Conservative
Peter Braid Conservative Kitchener—Waterloo, ON
Is a track inspection and a risk assessment the same thing, or are those two different things?
Executive Vice-President and Chief Operating Officer, Canadian National Railway Company
No. A track inspection and a risk assessment are two different things. The track inspection information you get will feed into what you do with the risk assessment, but they are separate.
Conservative
Peter Braid Conservative Kitchener—Waterloo, ON
When was the most recent risk assessment done then for that section of track in that area?
Executive Vice-President and Chief Operating Officer, Canadian National Railway Company
Michael, was it last year that we looked at the risk assessment over that course?
Vice-President, Safety and Sustainability, Canadian National Railway Company
Yes. That is correct.
In reference to our risk assessments, we have essentially gone through the complete network where we did our main routes and we completed that last year. Now we're looking at some of the smaller routes where we have lower densities and looking at the risk assessment.
When we talk about our risk assessments, it's all encompassing. It incorporates elements with regard to sensitive habitats from an environment standpoint and the density of populations. It looks at various factors as opposed to just one, for example, looking at dangerous goods. It's fairly comprehensive in terms of an overview of the corridors.
Conservative
Peter Braid Conservative Kitchener—Waterloo, ON
When the incident occurred on March 7, how quickly after the accident did the emergency response plan go into effect and what were the steps you followed?
Executive Vice-President and Chief Operating Officer, Canadian National Railway Company
It's as quick as possible. The train crew finds out that their train went into an emergency. They call the RTC centre by radio, which is located in Toronto. They tell them they have an incident and it is started right there.
Conservative
Peter Braid Conservative Kitchener—Waterloo, ON
Through the course of your emergency response plan, the steps you followed, the ensuing days, can you explain how you kept the residents of Gogama up-to-date, how you communicated, and were they kept properly informed from your perspective?
Executive Vice-President and Chief Operating Officer, Canadian National Railway Company
I'm going to ask Sean to answer that even though I was there because a lot of his people did a lot of work to make sure we did that.
Executive Vice-President, Corporate Services, and Chief Legal Officer, Canadian National Railway Company
In the minutes following the derailment, we reached out immediately to the mayor as well as the federal and provincial MP and MPP to inform them that there had been a derailment. We then, very quickly, deployed a communication group up there to work with the operating people. We're still there today, as we're speaking. We have daily information sessions with the citizens of Gogama to inform them of what we're doing on the cleanup side.
There has been a very intense outreach to make sure the citizens were in the know and not just relying on the local elected officials including the first nations community that is up there, as you know, a very active community. We informed them what we were doing on the derailment itself and how we were cleaning up.
Regarding the environmental impact, fish and wildlife, as we go toward the future, we ensure that they are part of our decisions as we go forward to make sure we do leave the site in a very pristine state in light of what's going on. There is a full outreach to the community and a lot of information back and forth.
Conservative
Executive Vice-President and Chief Operating Officer, Canadian National Railway Company
Well, you report any time you have an incident and if you need some information, it's a two-way discussion. That's how we do it. We have to understand what's on the train, which we do. The conductor carries the information of what's on the train. We also have it in the computer system. If we need more information, reporting, everything else, that's how we work with the different parties.
In fact, the first reporting regulation that we have is going through the TSB, advising them that we've had an incident and then they disperse it to a number of different groups.
Conservative
Peter Braid Conservative Kitchener—Waterloo, ON
You've put new temporary measures in place as a result of this particular derailment and others in the area. How long will these measures be in place?
Executive Vice-President and Chief Operating Officer, Canadian National Railway Company
We'll keep them on until we understand better what happened there and what we need to do differently.
Conservative
Peter Braid Conservative Kitchener—Waterloo, ON
Based on what you know now, what would you do differently?
Executive Vice-President and Chief Operating Officer, Canadian National Railway Company
It's a little early to give you a full breakdown on it. There are a number of things we have in place. Do I have a black and white clear answer? That's the difficulty about these things; we don't have a black and white. We're working through it and we'll see what....
We have implemented the speed reduction, more inspections, looking at different areas that have the same rail types, making sure we have senior presence, and making sure we don't have a people person problem where they weren't inspecting them the way they should.
We've implemented all that and we're not going to change that until we understand better what happened.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Larry Miller
We're out of time. I'd like to thank the gentlemen for being here.
Mr. Sullivan.
NDP
Mike Sullivan NDP York South—Weston, ON
I want to make one quick point, Mr. Chairman. It's not directed to these witnesses.
They have now suggested that Transport Canada is free to give us the risk assessments. Would you and/or the clerk please ask Transport Canada to provide those to us as they denied them the last time they were here?