Debates of May 7th, 2014

Transport—Main Estimates, 2014–15

[Linda Duncan, NDP, Edmonton Strathcona, AB]

Mr. Chair, in fact it has been constant 2012 to 2015, so despite these incredibly awful incidents we have had, there has not been an increase in the allocation.

The recent thousandfold increase in shipping of oil by rail has become known as the pipeline on rails, yet no environmental assessments are required for this activity, unlike pipelines. The government has said it considers rail shipping of petroleum more risky than pipelines. Why does the minister not require open, public, environmental assessments of these activities?

[Lisa Raitt, Conservative, Halton, ON]

Mr. Chair, as the hon. member will know, railways and railroads in our country are private and what they carry from shippers is their business, in terms of moving through. However, we have rules and regulations around the transportation of dangerous goods. We have rules and regulations around railway safety. We have taken unprecedented moves in the past nine months, giving emergency orders and protective orders to ensure that safety is primary when we are talking about this increased risk. I agree, the more volume that is being shipped, the greater the risk. That is why we are acting so strongly to ensure that railways are doing the best they can. There are always going to be safety and environmental regulations that they will be subject to, as I mentioned, in terms of transportation of dangerous goods and railway safety.

[Linda Duncan, NDP, Edmonton Strathcona, AB]

Mr. Chair, I am absolutely stunned at the response. In the 21st century it is astounding to hear the minister say that was always the way it was and it can self-regulate. This is the second time this evening that we have heard that the government is proud to say that its activities are self-regulated.

It may be noted that the budget forecast for 2014-15, in the report on plans and priorities, will reduce spending on environmental stewardship of transportation within the next two years by $18,000.

Does the minister believe rail companies should be exempt from open public assessment of risk to human life or health, or the environment, to build and operate massive terminals for 24-hour loading of bitumen and other petroleum products into rail cars?

[Lisa Raitt, Conservative, Halton, ON]

Mr. Chair, with respect to the particular example the hon. member has given, I do believe that in order to construct anything in the country one probably has to do an environmental impact statement or a study, depending on who gives them the permit to do the construction in the area. It is not on federal land so I cannot speak to the details of it.

I can say this. In the operation of key trains, which includes even a single tank car of crude oil in this specific instance, we do demand that a risk assessment be taken into consideration. That would be carried out in consultation with the Federation of Canadian Municipalities to make sure that they are doing what they can and have all the operating procedures to keep the train on the tracks as part of their operation.

Further, if the system is one in which the dangerous good, such as crude oil, is being loaded at a facility, our inspectors, under the Transportation of Dangerous Goods Act, can inspect the facilities as well.

[Linda Duncan, NDP, Edmonton Strathcona, AB]

Mr. Chair, it is not very reassuring that the minister is simply saying she is assuming that it may or not be on the rail company's land. These are major facilities that are being built in my province, very close to the city of Edmonton. The municipalities are expressing concerns and I think it is time to step up and take a closer look at this. These are major activities that require environmental assessment.

When did the minister first know that there would be transportation bottlenecks in getting grain off the prairies and to market?

[Lisa Raitt, Conservative, Halton, ON]

Mr. Chair, we became aware from CN and CP that they were having difficult winter conditions in January. We could also see it with the volumes of grain that were being moved in the country through our reporting mechanisms and we understood from them that it would be a stretch for them to move the amount of grain that was being cited simply because of the temperatures they were experiencing in various parts of the country, which debilitated their ability to run a full train. Instead they had to run smaller trains.

[Linda Duncan, NDP, Edmonton Strathcona, AB]

Mr. Chair, today I was talking to one of the minister's colleagues from Alberta. He has been unable to get his grain off to market. We can only hope for better next year, but we cannot be assured. We just hope that more and more of our farmers will not go belly-up.

My next question is this. If the minister thinks the changes in Bill C-30 to deal with the grain crisis are important, why do they all have sunset clauses?

[Lisa Raitt, Conservative, Halton, ON]

Mr. Chair, this has been addressed before by the Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food. The sunset clause is something that is administrative in nature and needed. Indeed that discussion happened at committee and that amendment was not passed.

[Linda Duncan, NDP, Edmonton Strathcona, AB]

Mr. Chair, what measures did the minister take proactively to prevent the backlog?

[Lisa Raitt, Conservative, Halton, ON]

Mr. Chair, we always have conversations through officials and through ourselves with the railway companies as to the movement of goods in the country. After we realized that the difficulty was twofold, one being the amount of crop, the other being the difficulty in winter, we had meetings both with the grain companies as well as with CN and CP to determine the best way to move the maximum amount of grain in the shortest amount of time. That is exactly what we did with an incredible order, which had never before been done in Canada, with respect to the movement of a million tonnes of grain out of our country in a short period of time, with monitoring and reporting back to us as ministers.

[Linda Duncan, NDP, Edmonton Strathcona, AB]

Mr. Chair, in light of these increases in oil tanker traffic on the west coast, could the minister confirm that Transport Canada projects further cuts to funding for marine safety of nearly $6 million over the next two years?

[Lisa Raitt, Conservative, Halton, ON]

Mr. Chair, what the hon. member will note more importantly is the fact that we have increased our funding in this area by 686%. That has to do with our world-class tanker safety and the fact that we strongly believe, with increased activity on all of our coasts, we need to ensure we have a world-class system going forward. Any administrative cuts or decreases one would see were all activities that were back office and had nothing to do with safety.

[Yvon Godin, NDP, Acadie—Bathurst, NB]

Mr. Chair, I am pleased to join the debate.

This must be the first time that so many NDP members have wished the minister a happy birthday. Once again, I would like to wish her a happy birthday.

How many railways for passenger transport does VIA Rail have in Canada?

[Lisa Raitt, Conservative, Halton, ON]

I am sorry, Mr. Chair. I honestly did not hear. I think there was a translation error there. Could the member say it again for me?

[Yvon Godin, NDP, Acadie—Bathurst, NB]

Mr. Chair, how many railways for passenger transport does VIA Rail have in Canada.

[Lisa Raitt, Conservative, Halton, ON]

Mr. Chair, the question I am hearing is how many railways are there for the intended transfer of VIA Rail passengers?

VIA Rail is the passenger train, the commuter train, that is a Canadian independent agency. There are other trains that provide passenger services. They are private I guess. One that comes to mind is Rocky Mountaineer on the west coast.

[Yvon Godin, NDP, Acadie—Bathurst, NB]

Mr. Chair, welcome to the Supreme Court of Canada. I will try again.

How many railways for passenger transport does VIA Rail have in Canada?

How many railways belong to VIA Rail?

[Lisa Raitt, Conservative, Halton, ON]

Mr. Chair, VIA Rail is an independent agency that has and maintains passenger rail service and some tourism services in Canada. It has its own operation, management and administration and does so at arm's-length from the government.

[Yvon Godin, NDP, Acadie—Bathurst, NB]

Mr. Chair, the information the minister does not have is that there are 19 railways in Canada. How many of them are protected by federal law?

[Lisa Raitt, Conservative, Halton, ON]

Mr. Chair, with respect to the number of federally regulated tier one railways that are non-passenger, it is two freight, which is CN and CP, as the hon. member probably knows.

With respect to other types of rail, it depends upon whether they are just provincially regulated or federally regulated. I think there is about 20 short line rail that may be federally regulated as well.

[Yvon Godin, NDP, Acadie—Bathurst, NB]

Mr. Chair, for the minister's information, none of VIA Rail's railways for passenger transport are protected by federal law. That is a huge problem.

How many of those railways for passenger transport have had their services cut over the past five years?

[Lisa Raitt, Conservative, Halton, ON]

Mr. Chair, I do not have the information with respect to the VIA decisions operationally.

As I already indicated, it is an independent organization that takes its own administration and management of its services in accordance with what we set out as major transportation policy in the country.

[Yvon Godin, NDP, Acadie—Bathurst, NB]

Mr. Chair, when did CN inform the government that it was planning to discontinue the rail line between Miramichi and Bathurst?

[Lisa Raitt, Conservative, Halton, ON]

Mr. Chair, in accordance with the Canadian Transportation Act, should a railway want to discontinue a line, like CN has indicated, in that part of the world, it has to give notice to all the parties. It did so in February of this year.

[Yvon Godin, NDP, Acadie—Bathurst, NB]

Mr. Chair, has the government committed to working with CN in order to maintain passenger services between Montreal and Halifax?