Transport Committee on March 9th, 2016

[Allison Padova]

I think each witness is going to have a portfolio of positions on each of these. To approach the study topic by topic, you'd end up inviting witnesses back several times and having potentially 10 witnesses at the same meeting or having several meetings for the same topic, and again inviting them back several times to discuss different issues.

[Ken Hardie, Liberal, Fleetwood—Port Kells, BC]

Are you convinced that the same people would be able to speak to both issues? These are quite different.

[Allison Padova]

The unions will certainly have positions on each of these topics—

[Ken Hardie, Liberal, Fleetwood—Port Kells, BC]

Oh yes, they will.

[Allison Padova]

—as will the railway companies.

[Ken Hardie, Liberal, Fleetwood—Port Kells, BC]

Then there's the specific topic experts. What is the safety of robotics? What are the fail-safes? There are things that we need to drill in on. We know generally where the unions are going to come from and generally where the railways are coming from. What we need are the people in between who can give us an objective view of the picture, right?

[Allison Padova]

Right.

[Ken Hardie, Liberal, Fleetwood—Port Kells, BC]

That then leads to some kind of measurable result, which is our intent here at this committee. This is what we want to be able to do, produce something that actually moves the needle. I would be really concerned if it just got into a big blender and we ended up not really knowing what we heard or where we got.

[Allison Padova]

I think that providing guidance to each witness about the terms of reference for the study and the specific issues that the committee would like information on beforehand would allow them to prepare their remarks to address those questions and allow a lot of time for committee members to follow up on anything that they want more details about.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

I have a list. I have Ms. Block, Mr. Fraser, and then I have Ms. Duncan.

[Kelly Block, Conservative, Carlton Trail—Eagle Creek, SK]

Madam Chair, I want to support the recommendation of our analyst to start with the officials from Transport Canada. I think she makes a good case for some of the things we've asked for.

I also think what would be helpful is if we got our lists of witnesses in to the analysts or the clerk. Then we could start to see where there's some crossover and where it might work to have folks at the same meeting or not. There are time schedules. It's going to be up to their time schedules, and we can't dictate that. I think what we can do is that after we have all the testimony we can organize whatever report we want to submit in a way that makes sense according to what we've heard and the different issues.

I would suggest that might be a way we want to move forward for today.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

Mr. Fraser.

[Sean Fraser, Liberal, Central Nova, NS]

I would suggest that Transport Canada would have some crossover, but for the other witnesses, I'm not so sure. I think if there's agreement we can deal with them first and then maybe sort the rest off-line after the meeting in discussions as a group, or maybe at the steering committee level. That might be a more efficient way to deal with this.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

Ms. Duncan.

[Linda Duncan, NDP, Edmonton Strathcona, AB]

With all due respect, I'm a little puzzled that our analyst is giving us the advice. I've never seen that in eight years on how we're going to run our study. I think it's up to us to decide, having talked to various people who have asked me to bring these issues forward. I appreciate Mr. Hardie's support for what I'm saying.

I think maybe (A) and (B) could go together. We're asking more broadly, what issues are that were identified in that 2008 study and since then. I would hope that we update since then because there are all kinds of reviews that have been done by the Transportation Safety Board, and so forth. I don't want to just talk about 2008. I think those potentially, with deference to Ms. Watts, could be combined.

I don't even understand how you come up with three meetings if they're all jumbled together. I think that in respect for those who want to raise the thing about remote-control devices, or those who want to talk about fatigue management, I know for sure there are different union people who specialize in that. There are probably different people in the department who are dealing with those issues and different Transportation Safety Board inspectors who have looked at those issues. I think we give them clear direction and say, “On this day please send us the person in your agency or entity who has specifically dealt with this and can help us to come up with some recommendations”. It's fine if we say three days, but that's what I would see dividing up. Potentially (A) and (B) could be together or on a separate day. Then it's four days, but I don't see that, Ms. Watts, has anything to do with the remote control and fatigue, so it doesn't make sense to lump it all in together.

I suggest we at least have one panel on fatigue and one panel on remote control, but to lump them all in together is just completely nonsensical.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

Thank you very much, Ms. Duncan.

We've adopted the motion that's before us. Our analyst is suggesting we start with transportation, and all of us, knowing the issue, should get a list of all of the different witnesses that we want to come in to testify to the variety of ones. I will work with the analyst on how to break it down a bit so we're not talking about 16 different issues at the same meeting and so that we're blocking it down. I understand the concerns of the committee. That's my suggestion, as the chair, that we will move this along.

Are there any other issues?

I'd like you to start to bring them to us tonight, as soon as possible.

For the meeting on the 21st, we'd like to have some witnesses by the 15th. You're suggesting to have the transportation department people. Get your witness names in for whatever part of the study as soon as you can.

I'm going to move adjournment of the meeting.

[Vance Badawey, Liberal, Niagara Centre, ON]

Don't we have another hour?

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

Sure we could have another hour, but only if you supply the wine.

Thank you very much. The meeting is adjourned.