Transport Committee on Dec. 5th, 2022

[The Chair, Liberal, Peter Schiefke]

Thank you very much, Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Barsalou-Duval.

Next, we have Mr. Bachrach.

Mr. Bachrach, the floor is yours. You have six minutes.

[Taylor Bachrach, NDP, Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I thank you, Minister, and your officials for being with us today.

I want to start with Bill C-33.

I appreciate that you're grateful for the committee's work. However, our report included 20 recommendations on rail safety. My read of Bill C-33 is that it doesn't address a single one of those recommendations.

Why is that?

[Omar Alghabra, Liberal, Mississauga Centre, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair, to my colleague for that question.

As you can imagine, the committee issued a report merely a few weeks before the bill was tabled. We are currently reviewing many of those recommendations and are committed to taking action. Many of the recommendations offer a lot of wisdom and ideas that, as I said earlier, we're committed to reviewing one by one. We will take action if necessary, but, as I said, the bill was drafted before the recommendations came out. That doesn't mean we couldn't do more work. The committee is always able to review the bill and offer recommendations. I know the committee offered many recommendations, including reviewing the rail police.

Mr. Bachrach, you've highlighted this to me, personally, and in committee on many occasions. We are committed to doing the review. Once the review is completed, whatever recommendations or actions are necessary will be taken.

[Taylor Bachrach, NDP, Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC]

The issue of private corporate rail police in Canada has been one you've known about for a long time. I think it was an issue that became evident to a lot of Canadians after the 2019 rail disaster in British Columbia, near Field.

I'm curious about why, given all the concerns we've heard over the years, there is nothing in this legislation to address this existing egregious conflict of interest in section 44 and subsection 44(1) of the Railway Safety Act.

[Omar Alghabra, Liberal, Mississauga Centre, ON]

Mr. Bachrach, I take rail safety—all modes of transportation safety—extremely seriously. That's precisely why we need to do our review properly. I think rushing into...while....

Let's acknowledge this issue needs to be reviewed. In order for us to finalize, or come up with, a concrete set of actions, we need to do a full review that includes rail companies, unions, stakeholders and parliamentarians. We want to do it right. As I said, Transport Canada is committed to completing this review properly and fully.

[Taylor Bachrach, NDP, Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC]

Pam Fraser, who lost her son in that disaster, recently appeared at a press conference. This is what she said:

Their bodies lay frozen—Dylan in the engine, Daniel in the water and Andrew outside the engine on the ground, freezing all that night. The people who came the next day to gather these bodies were CP Rail personnel.

Why, in Canada, are we allowing multi-billion dollar rail corporations to police themselves? How is the government not dealing with this? There's a review, but this has been an issue for 50 or 100 years. How is it possible that we accept such an archaic practice in this country?

[Omar Alghabra, Liberal, Mississauga Centre, ON]

Mr. Bachrach, my heart goes out to the family—to Pam and all the loved ones of those who were lost.

As I said, Transport Canada is committed to fully reviewing this practice. We are currently consulting, collecting evidence and examining the rules on what can be done to build upon...improving rail safety.

You, Pam and her family have my personal commitment, but this is work that is ongoing. We want to make sure we do it right—that it's done in consultation with the sector, but also with parliamentarians.

[Taylor Bachrach, NDP, Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC]

When will the review be complete, Minister?

[Omar Alghabra, Liberal, Mississauga Centre, ON]

It is something that we're taking extremely seriously. Transport Canada is committed to finalizing the review by next year.

[Taylor Bachrach, NDP, Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC]

Okay.

The U.K. has a publicly accountable independent rail police that reports to an independent commission. Why can't Canada have a similarly strong system of oversight for our rail sector? Why is it that other countries seem to have figured this out and don't allow their rail companies to police themselves? Why is Canada different?

[Omar Alghabra, Liberal, Mississauga Centre, ON]

Mr. Bachrach, Canada has one of the safest rail networks in the world. That does not mean that we don't have challenges. This is an ongoing work. We always need to push ourselves better. One loss of life is too many. We are going to continue to look at what we can do to improve safety, and that's precisely what we're doing, including examining other models around the world.

[Taylor Bachrach, NDP, Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC]

Is there another transportation sector in our country that has its own police force?

[Omar Alghabra, Liberal, Mississauga Centre, ON]

I don't want to answer this question and give you the wrong answer.

Mr. Bachrach, we are taking this matter extremely seriously. I'm grateful for your work, your personal work and the work of the members of the committee here, and the advocacy of community members and community organizations. This is a matter that we're committed to reviewing fully and we are acting on it.

[The Chair, Liberal, Peter Schiefke]

Thank you very much, Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Bachrach.

Next we have Mr. Muys.

Mr. Muys, the floor is yours. You have five minutes.

[Dan Muys, Conservative, Flamborough—Glanbrook, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Minister, for being here once again to answer questions. We appreciate that.

The last time you were with us here at committee, we were talking about the state of Canada's airports after a spring and summer of turmoil. I know that my colleague Mr. Strahl asked about that and pointed to some statistics in terms of where we stood in the world. At that time, you were quite emphatic that more needs to be done. You pointed to some improvements, but you were quite emphatic that more needs to be done.

When you answered Mr. Strahl's question, you spoke about some generalities, but maybe you can be more specific. Between August 19 and today, three and a half months later, what has been done to improve the state of Canada's airports in terms of the long lines, the baggage mayhem, the delays and the cancellations we've seen?

[Omar Alghabra, Liberal, Mississauga Centre, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair, and to Mr. Muys for that question.

There have been short-term measures that have taken place, and there are medium- and long-term plans that are ongoing as we speak.

A short-term measure was certainly accelerating the hiring—again, I'll focus on the government side—of CATSA employees. More than 2,100 CATSA employees have been hired in a very short period of time, while ensuring they are trained and up to speed.

There has been a standing working group that brings the air sector together—airports, airlines, Nav Canada, CATSA and CBSA—to address operational issues immediately.

We have worked with airports and airlines on expediting the security clearance of new employees and automatically renewing the security clearance of existing employees.

We've ensured that Nav Canada has a plan to respond to the labour shortage they dealt with and the training of future employees.

In the long term, we are currently working on modernizing the security screening process.

We are looking at strengthening the air passenger rights regulations.

I'll stop here, but there's more too.

[Dan Muys, Conservative, Flamborough—Glanbrook, ON]

Sure, so let me ask—that's a number of things—are you satisfied with the pace of this improvement?

[Omar Alghabra, Liberal, Mississauga Centre, ON]

It's an ongoing process, Mr. Muys.

I can tell you this. I was not satisfied with what I saw happen last spring and last summer. It was completely unacceptable. I can try to explain or understand what happened, but it was still unacceptable. If you were a passenger who had to wait at an airport for so many hours, or had to sleep on the floor or lost your luggage, that was unacceptable.

[Dan Muys, Conservative, Flamborough—Glanbrook, ON]

Specifically, in August, you made reference to that as well: Canadians sleeping on the floor in our airports, which is egregious in a G7 country. You said, as you did today, that was unacceptable. Can you assure Canadians as we get into the winter and the Christmas peak holiday travel season that it's going to be different? Are there still going to be Canadians sleeping on the floor? Can we assure Canadians that's not going to happen?

[Omar Alghabra, Liberal, Mississauga Centre, ON]

First of all, Mr. Muys, it's really important to point out to Canadians that our sector is quite interlinked and complicated.

The government has a direct line of responsibility for CATSA as a Crown corporation.

Airports and airlines are organizations independent of government. However, Transport Canada is the regulator, and we do have an ability to influence their operations and how they're conducting themselves. That's why we have a first set of rules that protect passengers' rights and ensure airlines deliver on the commitment they make to their customers.

We have been directly communicating with airports to ensure that what we saw last summer doesn't happen. We are—and I am personally—ensuring the voice of Canadians is being heard in the sector.

[Dan Muys, Conservative, Flamborough—Glanbrook, ON]

Can I ask, because on May 30, we were talking about these same issues when you were at committee, and you talked about a working group with the airlines, CATSA and CBSA. It's obviously within your bailiwick to deal with these bottlenecks. You referenced earlier in this committee the meeting of a group last week.

What has happened in the interim six months? Has that working group been operating since the end of May? What were the findings? How have they been implemented to make those improvements?

[Omar Alghabra, Liberal, Mississauga Centre, ON]

Chair, I'll repeat what I said earlier. I've itemized a few operational changes that took place, from hiring staff to improving operational bottlenecks—including security clearance for employees and new employees—working with airlines to address pilot shortages and working with airports to ensure that they have the financial support.

We've invested close to $2 billion in airports alone, between the airport critical infrastructure program, the airports capital assistance program and regional airport development. There has been significant investment.

[The Chair, Liberal, Peter Schiefke]

Thank you very much, Minister.

Thank you very much, Mr. Muys.

Next we have Mr. Badawey. The floor is yours. You have five minutes.

[Vance Badawey, Liberal, Niagara Centre, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you to all the witnesses for coming out today.

I will be splitting my time with Mr. Chahal. Hopefully, we'll have two and a half minutes each, so I'll be brief.

Mr. Minister, again, welcome.

Mr. Minister, with respect to Bill C-33.... As you know, because you were a great help with some of the initiatives that we were beginning to work on in the Niagara region, with your help, we facilitated a partnership between the cities of Port Colborne, Welland, Thorold and the Hamilton-Oshawa Port Authority to establish the Niagara Ports multimodal trade corridor.

Minister, again as you know, with your help, the strategy was created and established, and it strengthens Niagara's overall economy, including our supply chain. It is creating over 10,000 jobs over the next decade. These are new jobs over and above what we have right now throughout the region. I'll report that this growth has already begun to occur within the jurisdictions of all the partners, across the Niagara region and, quite frankly, predominantly across southwestern Ontario.

Minister, with Bill C-33, how do you see this legislation strengthening the future of this trade corridor?

[Omar Alghabra, Liberal, Mississauga Centre, ON]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

Mr. Badawey, let me first applaud your vision and hard work over the last many years in recognizing the opportunity that is before you and the region to enhance the role of the Great Lakes for the region from an economic development perspective and from a job creation perspective. I'll continue to be delighted to work with you on advancing that vision.

Some of the supply chain challenges have included many port challenges, port congestion and old ways of doing things. I will point out one thing that I know will be helpful to the Great Lakes and the Port of Hamilton, as well, which is creating the ability of ports to have inland ports, creating the ability of ports to co-operate and collaborate, and creating a much more stable investment framework for ports to attract investment.

I think this will be extremely helpful to the plans that the region has for developing its Great Lakes trade corridor, for utilizing the port terminals and for supporting economic development in the region.