Evidence of meeting #52 for Transport, Infrastructure and Communities in the 44th Parliament, 1st session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was communication.
A video is available from Parliament.
Senior Vice-President and Chief Legal Officer, Canadian National Railway Company
Mr. Tran maybe.
Director, Passenger Services, Canadian National Railway Company
Absolutely. We had a top-to-top meeting between our chief operating officer and Via Rail's president and vice-president of train operations. We further agreed that we would set up a meeting between the senior leadership of both our operations groups, their operation control centre and our network operations centre. That meeting will take place later on this month. We will review all of the emergency protocols and the escalation process that we use between the companies, to make sure that the right people are communicating at the right time as these situations emerge.
Conservative
Dan Muys Conservative Flamborough—Glanbrook, ON
One of the criticisms throughout this of all the players, whether it's air or rail, during the holiday period was a lack of communication to passengers and to others. Would you say, given what you've said about communication protocols and the reviews you're going to undertake, that what has happened was acceptable?
Senior Vice-President and Chief Legal Officer, Canadian National Railway Company
If you're talking strictly from a communications standpoint, first of all, no.
Having passengers stranded on a train for as long as they were is not acceptable. In terms of how we go about improving our performance going forward—you're asking specifically on communications—as I said and like Hoang said, we want to make sure that there's one point of contact so that we avoid multiple messages and creating chaos where there should be clarity. I'm not saying there was, but there is an opportunity to do this better, and that's what we're focused on.
We did communicate, but, as I said, it was an evolving situation, so our message evolved as well. There's no doubt that, as I said, we are looking for opportunities to make sure that the message is streamlined, that there's one point of communication going forward when that happens.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Peter Schiefke
Thank you, Mr. Chouc.
Thank you very much, Mr. Muys.
Next we have Mr. Chahal.
Mr. Chahal, the floor is yours. You have five minutes.
Liberal
George Chahal Liberal Calgary Skyview, AB
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, all, for providing testimony today.
My first question really goes to the communications as well. I want to clarify how regularly CN was in communication with Via during the disruption to service that occurred.
Senior Vice-President and Chief Legal Officer, Canadian National Railway Company
Hoang, would you like to answer?
Director, Passenger Services, Canadian National Railway Company
There are really two stages of communications when this unfurls. The first one is addressing the immediate emergency situation with train 55, and that communication was ongoing, I would say.
When it pertained to the derailment and the service disruption impacting the Kingston subdivision, the communication was less frequent, but as required. As we're re-railing equipment and we know it's going to take 24 to 30 hours, there's no point in keeping an open phone line between the two companies and just have that go without anyone speaking. As we got more pertinent information that we were confident about, then we would absolutely share that information.
On the first part, it was constant; on the second part, it was as required.
Senior Vice-President and Chief Legal Officer, Canadian National Railway Company
With Transport Canada we had communication immediately following the accident. Then we were in regular communication throughout the 24th, 25th, 26th and 27th, until such time as the tracks were reopened for traffic.
I couldn't tell you specifically the exact frequency, but I can tell you that every single time we had a meaningful enough development we would contact the minister's office and they contacted us as well on their own just to make sure they stayed informed about the situation and the upcoming developments.
Liberal
George Chahal Liberal Calgary Skyview, AB
CN was regularly providing updates to Transport Canada and to the minister's office about the progress, but also about returning the service to normal. Is that correct?
Senior Vice-President and Chief Legal Officer, Canadian National Railway Company
That is correct.
Liberal
George Chahal Liberal Calgary Skyview, AB
You've said that every day from the 25th, 26th, 27th... communicating with them. Can you once again for the record state that that is correct? Go ahead.
Senior Vice-President and Chief Legal Officer, Canadian National Railway Company
That is correct. I was personally in communication with the minister's office throughout that period of time.
Liberal
George Chahal Liberal Calgary Skyview, AB
By your being in personal contact with the minister's office, you had an open line of communication and dialogue to discuss all the challenges we're hearing about today. Is that correct?
Senior Vice-President and Chief Legal Officer, Canadian National Railway Company
Yes.
Liberal
George Chahal Liberal Calgary Skyview, AB
Thank you. I think that clarifies some of the false assertions made by one of my colleagues earlier in this meeting.
I think this was a unique weather event, quite challenging for everybody in the transportation sector, from airlines to rail.
Are you better prepared for future events like this to occur with your communication protocol? You talked about a centralized, single point of contact with Via. Are you confident that, if we ever have a disruption again due to weather or an emergency, you're better prepared and well prepared to have all the protocols in place to deal with those challenges?
Senior Vice-President and Chief Legal Officer, Canadian National Railway Company
Yes. As I said in my opening statement, every incident is reviewed so that we can assess opportunities for improvement. In this case it was about communication. We are working towards an improved communication protocol, absolutely.
Liberal
George Chahal Liberal Calgary Skyview, AB
I think the big challenge we've seen and that's been discussed by many of my colleagues was, particularly for passengers, not having information or not being well informed. I hope there are some good learnings from what happened this season that will prevent further failure in communications from all parties. I think one of the biggest learnings, at least for me, is that good, constant and clear communication is required. I'm very grateful that you've been in close contact with the minister's office and the minister to work together to find a solution to this challenging time.
Thank you so much for your testimony today.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Peter Schiefke
Thank you very much, Mr. Chahal.
Go ahead, Mr. Barsalou‑Duval. You have two and a half minutes.
Bloc
Xavier Barsalou-Duval Bloc Pierre-Boucher—Les Patriotes—Verchères, QC
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Mr. Chouc, earlier, when I asked you about the CN's public communications, you told me that regular updates were produced and provided.
I'm not exactly familiar with all the ways in which CN makes its communications public, but I've been on the CN website and on social media, including Twitter, and I haven't seen any communications for that particular period.
Was it voluntary? How else were the updates made public?
Shouldn't I have found some information on the website or on social media, given the exceptional nature of the situation?
Senior Vice-President and Chief Legal Officer, Canadian National Railway Company
I'll let my colleague Mr. Tran answer the question, then I can round out his answer.
Director, Passenger Services, Canadian National Railway Company
Thank you.
Our communications regarding the situation are made directly to VIA Rail Canada. It's up to VIA Rail Canada employees to establish their service recovery plan and communicate with passengers.
We describe the infrastructure conditions to them, then they have to make their plan and communicate with their passengers to notify them of the resumption of service and the scheduling of trains.
Bloc
Xavier Barsalou-Duval Bloc Pierre-Boucher—Les Patriotes—Verchères, QC
Earlier, I asked when the most recent inspection was done. You weren't able to tell me.
How often are the tracks and the area around them inspected? I imagine that there's something predetermined and that it's done on a regular basis.
Senior Vice-President and Chief Legal Officer, Canadian National Railway Company
I'll let my colleague Mr. Guimond answer, but I want to assure you that we're going far beyond our regulatory obligations. We do inspections much more frequently, and we also invest heavily in technology to improve the quality of inspections.
We've developed specialized devices to discover defects that the human eye wouldn't be able to detect.
So not only is the frequency of our inspections higher than that prescribed by the regulations, but the quality of the inspections is higher because of the technology.
Did you want to add anything, Mr. Guimond?