Evidence of meeting #8 for Transport, Infrastructure and Communities in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was employees.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Vice-President, Human Resources and Labour Relations, Canadian Pacific Railway
I don't like to quote numbers directly. I'm not the CFO.
Liberal
David McGuinty Liberal Ottawa South, ON
Your president and COO, Keith Creel, was here two years ago and said they were just over $6 billion.
Two days ago Hunter Harrison announced the Norfolk Southern merger fell through. Is that right?
Vice-President, Human Resources and Labour Relations, Canadian Pacific Railway
Yes.
Liberal
David McGuinty Liberal Ottawa South, ON
You're a company that's grossing over $6 billion a year.
How many employees do you have?
Vice-President, Human Resources and Labour Relations, Canadian Pacific Railway
Right now, about 12,500, with one-third of them in the U.S.
Liberal
David McGuinty Liberal Ottawa South, ON
My first reaction to the union-selected overworked employee sheet is that I don't know if it's good hockey today, as a corporation, to be negotiating at a parliamentary committee with your unions and union reps. Isn't this perhaps better placed in closed-door negotiations with your unions?
Vice-President, Human Resources and Labour Relations, Canadian Pacific Railway
We did give it to them before we began negotiations, for one thing. The second thing is that the reason this topic is on the union's mind is that they're looking for a thing called “windows”, which they asked for in negotiations. They asked the arbitrator and the arbitrator declined to give it to them. We knew they would come out and bring it through the legislative forum, which they've done.
Liberal
David McGuinty Liberal Ottawa South, ON
Would you think it would be more appropriate, for example, to have you—actually, it would be more important and appropriate to have Hunter Harrison and Keith Creel here—sitting side by side with your union leadership? Wouldn't that be a more productive exercise, if we're going to be talking about he-said-she-said?
Vice-President, Human Resources and Labour Relations, Canadian Pacific Railway
No, they wouldn't meet with me. I asked them in January. They're still not available. If you can make that happen, I would love that to happen.
Liberal
David McGuinty Liberal Ottawa South, ON
Okay.
Let me ask you this last question, because we're almost out of time.
Can you name three measures or actions that your company has spent money on that you're forced to abide by—
Vice-President, Human Resources and Labour Relations, Canadian Pacific Railway
I'll let him do two. I'll take one.
Vice-President, Human Resources and Labour Relations, Canadian Pacific Railway
Moving those crews to put them in place ahead of those other people—that they're grieving—costs us a lot of money. Those cabs aren't free. That time isn't free. He can handle the other two.
General Manager, Regulatory and Operating Practices, Canadian Pacific Railway
One is that the number one cause of train derailments is track infrastructure failure. We do more track infrastructure inspection with technology than is required by regulation. That's one of the reasons why we're leading the industry.
The other one is investment in technology. We have technology in place right now—and you heard about requests for exemptions from rules—for coal trains we operate in British Columbia, where the brake tests on those trains are done using technology that's far superior to the manual processes that have been in place for years. It costs us money to do that.
Conservative
Dianne Lynn Watts Conservative South Surrey—White Rock, BC
That's perfect. Thank you.
I want to touch base on the high-risk crossings. They've been identified across Canada. In terms of how you measure that risk, some would be a low risk and some would be a medium or high risk, from what I understand. For the high-risk ones that have just come out, how are you managing those?
General Manager, Regulatory and Operating Practices, Canadian Pacific Railway
It's a difficult question because I haven't seen the list.
Conservative
General Manager, Regulatory and Operating Practices, Canadian Pacific Railway
This list was published in the media today, I believe?
Conservative
Dianne Lynn Watts Conservative South Surrey—White Rock, BC
Yes. Okay. Let's get away from the list.
You have a high-risk crossing. How do you manage that?
