Evidence of meeting #24 for Transport, Infrastructure and Communities in the 43rd Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was rail.

A recording is available from Parliament.

On the agenda

MPs speaking

Also speaking

Karen Hogan  Auditor General of Canada, Office of the Auditor General
Dawn Campbell  Principal, Office of the Auditor General
Marc Brazeau  President and Chief Executive Officer, Railway Association of Canada
Kyle Mulligan  Chief Engineer, Canadian Pacific Railway
Tom Brown  Assistant Vice-President of Safety, Canadian National Railway Company
Clerk of the Committee  Ms. Alexie Labelle

8:35 p.m.

Assistant Vice-President of Safety, Canadian National Railway Company

Tom Brown

No, not that I'm aware of.

8:35 p.m.

NDP

Taylor Bachrach NDP Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC

Mr. Chair, I'm going to use the rest of my time to move the motion that I provided notice of.

8:35 p.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Vance Badawey

Go ahead.

8:35 p.m.

NDP

Taylor Bachrach NDP Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC

Mr. Chair, I move:

That in light of the numerous rail disasters that have occurred since the Committee last studied rail safety in 2016, and given projected increases in the volumes of dangerous goods transported through some regions of Canada, the committee commit to a follow-up study focusing on Canadian rail safety, including but not limited to the transport of dangerous goods, emergency response capacity and efficacy, and labour conditions for workers in the sector; that the study identify measures that can be taken by the federal government to improve rail safety; and that the study conclude in six meetings or fewer.

8:35 p.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Vance Badawey

Thank you, Mr. Bachrach. Your time has been stopped, but you alluded to the fact that you were going to use your time to present this motion.

Are there any questions or comments from members of the committee on Mr. Bachrach's motion?

With no questions or comments, I am going to now move on to the—

April 13th, 2021 / 8:35 p.m.

The Clerk of the Committee Ms. Alexie Labelle

Mr. Chair, there are questions.

8:35 p.m.

Liberal

Maninder Sidhu Liberal Brampton East, ON

Mr. Chair, there are a couple of hands up in the participants panel.

8:35 p.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Vance Badawey

Usually I see the hands.

Folks, if you could use the “raise hand” function, it's easier for me to see all the hands raised. There should be a “raise hand” function there.

8:35 p.m.

Liberal

Helena Jaczek Liberal Markham—Stouffville, ON

My raised hand is right there, Mr. Chair, on the screen.

8:35 p.m.

Liberal

Soraya Martinez Ferrada Liberal Hochelaga, QC

Mine too, Mr. Chair.

8:35 p.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Vance Badawey

Okay. There we go. I'm working off of one screen now.

I have Mr. El-Khoury, Ms. Martinez Ferrada, Ms. Jaczek and Mr. Rogers.

Mr. El-Khoury, go ahead.

8:35 p.m.

Liberal

Fayçal El-Khoury Liberal Laval—Les Îles, QC

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

With all due respect, I know full well that we have a lot of documents to produce as a result of the work we have already done.

I'm not sure whether this is the right time or whether it would interfere with our work and our efforts to produce our report, but I would like to know what our colleagues from the Conservative Party and the Bloc Québécois think about such a situation.

8:40 p.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Vance Badawey

Thank you, Mr. El-Khoury.

Ms. Martinez Ferrada, you have the floor.

8:40 p.m.

Liberal

Soraya Martinez Ferrada Liberal Hochelaga, QC

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I apologize to my colleague. I have just arrived at the committee and I understand that a lot of work has already been done and that there are reports waiting to be produced. I understand that the committee's schedule is already quite full. All in all, I think we all agree that we need to discuss the importance of our rail safety and that we all share the same concern.

Is there a way to reduce the number of meetings? I'm glad there is no set date for us to agree on the motion. This will allow us to assess when it could be introduced. Generally speaking, we could support such a motion if we could reduce the number of meetings proposed for the study, and agree on it during our term.

8:40 p.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Vance Badawey

Thank you, Ms. Martinez Ferrada.

We will go to Ms. Jaczek, Mr. Rogers and then back to Mr. Bachrach.

Ms. Jaczek, you have the floor.

8:40 p.m.

Liberal

Helena Jaczek Liberal Markham—Stouffville, ON

Thank you, Chair.

Certainly, the issue of rail safety, especially from what we've heard today, is of great interest to all of us. But at this point in time, we have done so much work and heard so many witnesses on a variety of different studies, and yet we haven't tabled a single one in Parliament. I just read the draft of our report on aircraft certification subsequent to the Boeing 737 Max 8 crashes. I'm really anxious to get that discussed so that we come to our recommendations. I just think of all those witnesses who came. We started this in January 2020. All of that work was done. We owe some respect to the families involved who we heard from with great emotion. We have to complete some of the work that we've started.

In terms of the number of meetings and when we might engage on this particular study, I echo my colleagues' comments. I really think we need to make sure we can put in front of Parliament something that we have actually completed as a committee.

8:40 p.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Vance Badawey

Thank you, Ms. Jaczek.

Mr. Rogers.

8:40 p.m.

Liberal

Churence Rogers Liberal Bonavista—Burin—Trinity, NL

Mr. Chair, my comments will be very similar.

As a committee, we set out a priority list of studies that we wanted to do. If we continuously get thrown off that track, we will accomplish very little as a committee. I think we have enough on our plate right now.

I support this motion only if it's prioritized at the end of the line as compared with the other studies that we've already agreed on. I appreciate the rail safety issue, obviously, but if we're going to be successful as a committee, we need to get on with the work we have already prioritized and do that first.

8:40 p.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Vance Badawey

Thank you, Mr. Rogers.

Ms. Kusie.

8:40 p.m.

Conservative

Stephanie Kusie Conservative Calgary Midnapore, AB

Chair, I was having a conversation with Mr. Bachrach as well as the Conservative members on the committee. We feel it might be timely if we took even half a meeting for the business of the committee at this time. It does seem that after the aviation study, and then the Max 8.... I do sympathize with Ms. Jaczek's comments that it does seem that we are undertaking so much.

I don't know if we need half a meeting, but I think it would be good if we took even half an hour to re-evaluate our previously determined priorities and have a conversation on whether this is what is still important, especially as we see the nation emerging, hopefully, from the pandemic, and on the most pressing needs for the future from a transport perspective. That's a conversation I've had with several committee members.

Mr. Barsalou-Duval, I'm sorry that we haven't had that conversation.

I also want to welcome Ms. Martinez Ferrada to her first meeting.

Welcome, Madam Parliamentary Secretary.

I think it would be good if we had even half a meeting to set ourselves on track.

Thank you.

8:45 p.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Vance Badawey

Thank you, Ms. Kusie.

Before I move on, we are at our time limit here. I will take the advice of members of the committee to have a business planning session. My concern is not different from what has already been mentioned. We've participated in a lot of studies since the beginning of this session and we haven't brought a report to Parliament yet. Those studies shouldn't be looked at as a waste of time. They should be made to be productive, and the only way they can be productive and we can actually validate them is by bringing them to the floor of the House and presenting them to the members of Parliament.

Having said that, I think we have one more study, which we're embarking on right now, which is the infrastructure study. Of course the expectation beyond that was to bring some reports to the committee, to ratify them and, again, to proceed to the House of Commons.

I'm going to go quickly, before we adjourn, in fairness to Taylor and to Xavier with regard to their comments, and then I'm going to have to adjourn the meeting, but I will assure you that we'll call at least half a meeting or half a time slot for a business planning meeting so we can settle this.

Taylor, you have the floor.

8:45 p.m.

NDP

Taylor Bachrach NDP Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I support the idea of having a committee business meeting. I also appreciate the suggestion by, I believe, Ms. Martinez Ferrada, that maybe the number of meetings be reduced, and I would be happy to make that amendment to my motion. Currently it's six meetings. I would be happy to modify it to four meetings including today's meeting.

I would note that we find ourselves in this position because we've added witnesses on this topic to our meeting, so it feels as though we're partway through a study on rail safety, and I would very much like to continue that momentum and to hear some other perspectives. I've met with other people who might not share the same perspective as that of the people we've met with today.

Mr. Chair, appreciating the short time we have, I would like to have a vote on my motion before we adjourn, if that's possible.

8:45 p.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Vance Badawey

It's not. We're out of time. I'm sorry, Taylor. We're at 8:47 right now, but with all due respect to you, may I suggest we discuss this at the business planning meeting? I think it goes without saying that you have support with the amendment being made. If I read the numbers now across one screen that I have in front of me, I'm very optimistic. I wouldn't be too worried about bringing this and passing it, but we are out of time, and I can't go past the time—

8:45 p.m.

NDP

Taylor Bachrach NDP Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC

A vote takes 30 seconds, Mr. Chair.

8:45 p.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Vance Badawey

I still have Mr. Barsalou-Duval who wants to speak as well, with all due respect to him. Then we'll have to move on. Taylor, we can move this to the business planning session, and I think we can then move on from there, especially with respect to prioritizing it.

Mr. Barsalou-Duval, go ahead.