Our mandate is to investigate occurrences and identify causes and contributing factors to accidents, as well as underlying safety deficiencies. Our role, therefore, is to make recommendations, and over the years we have made a number of recommendations with respect to crossing safety. Most recently, in Ottawa, as part of our investigation into the fatal crash of an OC Transpo bus with VIA Rail, we recommended that Transport provide explicit guidance on when grade separation should be provided. That's part of the problem: the more opportunity there is for vehicles and trains to meet at a level-grade crossing, the more risk you have. We also made a specific recommendation to the City of Ottawa to review conditions at three specific crossings. Under the regulations, assessments fall within the mandate of the road authorities, the railway companies, and Transport Canada. It's not our mandate to go out and assess each individual crossing. In the course of an investigation, however, we certainly identify deficiencies in specific crossings, and we would expect safety action to be taken as a result of that.
On May 16th, 2016. See this statement in context.