Transport Committee on Sept. 11th, 2017

[Martin Shields, Conservative, Bow River, AB]

We don't want to face another year like 2013 for grain movement, cereal crops.

For the ones that are missing, are you pursuing all avenues to get those other crops recognized in there, soybeans and the rest of them?

[Ray Orb]

Yes, there is a mention of soybeans, and that's something the crop logistics working group will be putting forward later this week. Soybeans have become an interesting crop because the genetic research has provided better varieties of that kind of grain. It's a product that I think is going to be very important to farmers.

[Martin Shields, Conservative, Bow River, AB]

The last thing I'm going to ask about would be the data, in the sense of the weekly reporting now, but culminating in the monthly reports. Who is that distributed to?

[Ray Orb]

The data now is distributed to the general public. It can be found on a website. It's very important to the shippers, particularly the grain companies, who look at that. But the producers look at that too to be able to get better prices in contracting.

[Martin Shields, Conservative, Bow River, AB]

That's an excellent point in the sense of the technology involved in the agriculture industry, of how the agriculture sector follows and is technologically advanced. That advanced information data is critical these days.

[Ray Orb]

It's very important.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

Thank you.

Mr. Badawey.

[Vance Badawey, Liberal, Niagara Centre, ON]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

I just have a few questions with respect to your comments about life cycle of railways, but I'm going to take it a step further. I'm going to refer to the life cycle of all transportation-related infrastructure, whether waterways, railways, roads, or airports, etc.

Currently there is a strategy that the minister has established, and this legislation, Bill C-49, will complement that strategy when we get it. With that there is going to be—I spoke about this with other witnesses—a need for infrastructure investments as it relates to life cycle, replacement maintenance, and ultimately replacement of those assets 30, 40, 50, 60 years down the road.

My question for you as engineers, as folks who are part of transportation-related systems, is do you find that the life cycle is actually being abided by? Are the strategies and asset management plans being put in place? That's my first question.

My second question is, are those asset management plans actually being financed?

[Jeanette Southwood]

Regarding asset management plans, I might defer to my neighbour George Bell, regarding Metrolinx, to begin.

[George Bell]

Thank you.

Yes, indeed we have asset management plans. We do life cycle analysis and life cycle costing. The responsibility—although it's outside of my direct area of expertise—for us is to squeeze the assets and get the greatest economic safe-life out of them that we can. We try to do that. Currently, I believe we are resourced to do that.

[Jeanette Southwood]

Regarding asset management plans and whether they are being adhered to, that is a question I will have to take back to my organization and we will provide information to the committee on that.

However, in addition to the asset management plans, I would like to raise the climate vulnerability plans and assessments. Certainly infrastructure in Canada is just embarking on the beginning of the road for those types of assessments. They are a key part of asset management, truly understanding where the vulnerabilities are, what assets are needed, and how to plan for the future, bringing those all together. Thank you.

[Vance Badawey, Liberal, Niagara Centre, ON]

Madam Chair, the reason I asked that question is that we can have all the strategies in place and legislation that supports those strategies, but if we don't have proper infrastructure and the infrastructure investments being made to ultimately satisfy the recommendations contained within those strategies, it's a no go. Therefore, you folks who are in the business would know best from your travels, whether it's public or private sector, who are the users, the operators, the managers of these assets who are, first, actually adhering to asset management, but most important, second, financing those asset management plans. That is the reason for the question.

Mr. Bell, did you want to comment on that, from the point of view of Metrolinx?

[George Bell]

Yes, we have a relatively new system at Metrolinx called assetlinx. Everything at Metrolinx has a “linx” in it. That's entirely designed to do just what you're asking. It's to make sure that we work the economic life of our assets, that we know where we are, that we know what our state of good repair is—something you should hear a lot about from railways—and that we know what we need to do. Currently we have, I think, adequate financing, at least on the capital side. Our operating financing sometimes lags our capital, however.

[Vance Badawey, Liberal, Niagara Centre, ON]

That's great, thank you.

Madam Chair, I'm going to give the rest of my time to Mr. Hardie.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

You have two minutes.

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

Thank you.

[Vance Badawey, Liberal, Niagara Centre, ON]

You're welcome.

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

Mr. Bell, I made a strategic error in asking you about the Coast Mountain Bus Company and its experience with on-board video and audio.

Certainly video has been a fact of life for the company you used to work with—for 31 years, I think—and that's the SkyTrain system, which of course is totally automated. Again, I go back to the question about the labour relations climate. Obviously those cameras, and there are hundreds of them on that system, capture every angle and incident. So not only the transit staff but also the transit police staff are covered by that. What can you tell us about the use and management of those video records?

[George Bell]

You're correct; there are in fact thousands of cameras on the SkyTrain system. They cover almost every aspect of the system itself, including something as arcane as inside the elevators. It's always been run, with that as a management tool. We've had no labour relations issues, that I know of, relating to the use of the cameras. We use them to plan proactively, we use them to respond, and we allow transit police to use them to respond to incidents or to plan for future incidents. The cameras capture pretty much everything that takes place outside the trains. There are a limited, but increasing, number of cameras inside the trains. That is for public protection, as well as for staff protection. As we'll see in the future in that system, everywhere will be covered by the cameras. Currently we use them for those purposes, and we've had no trouble with our staff over them.

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

Ms. Southwood—

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

Make it very short, Mr. Hardie.

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

It'll have to be very short.

Maybe if I get a chance a little later I'll ask you and Mr. Orb to talk about the health and well-being of the short-line railroads.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

Thank you, Mr. Hardie.

Go ahead, Mr. Brassard.

[John Brassard, Conservative, Barrie—Innisfil, ON]

Thank you, Madam Chair. I have just a couple of questions.

The first is to you, Mr. Orb. You spoke about the angst among the grain and elevator industry with respect to opposing railways not allowing another company to run on the same line. There seems to be some confusion and, of course, when there's confusion it creates doubts. Do you see the potential risk in the short term to the Canadian grain economy as a result of what's going on right now?

[Ray Orb]

I think there is a certain amount of risk. In particular, the Western Grain Elevator Association is concerned about that. Although I obviously can't speak for them, I have heard them speak about the concern about the contracts, and specifically about being able to deliver into the United States. I believe that they were delivering, and now this new legislation poses a dilemma.