Mr. Speaker, with regard to (a), on April 23, 2014, under the authority of the Transportation of Dangerous Goods Act, Transport Canada issued protective direction 34, requiring the immediate phase-out of the least crash-resistant DOT-111 tank cars from dangerous goods service. These are the tank cars that are not equipped with continuous bottom reinforcement, posing a much higher risk of failure in a derailment.
Some tank cars in North America do not enter Canada and are therefore not subject to protective direction 34. Some 2,879 tank cars were reported to Transport Canada as having been removed from dangerous goods service in Canada, and the phase-out is now complete.
With regard to (b), industry was given 30 days in which to remove these cars from dangerous goods service in Canada, and the phase-out is now complete. Thirty-one empty cars, which were unable to clean and purge residue product within the 30 days, have been given “Notices to remedy Non-compliance” and directed to a location for cleaning and purging prior to being repurposed, or removal to the US.
With regard to (c), phase-out of service is complete/not applicable.
With regard to (d), none of these DOT-111 tank cars that have no continuous reinforcement of their bottom shell, whose reporting marks are on file with Transport Canada, has been identified as being involved in any TDG incident since April. All owners of these affected tank cars have identified their cars, using the unique reporting mark in the North American database of railway cars, UMLER. Rail carriers use this database to identify cars that cannot be used in dangerous goods service. Further, transport of dangerous goods inspectors verify at the scene of an incident that any cars involved are not subject to the protective direction.