Karen McCrimmon

[Rail Transportation, April 10th, 2017]

Madam Speaker, I would like to thank the member for Mégantic—L'Érable for raising this issue.

Let me begin by saying that we share the concerns regarding the well-being of the Lac-Mégantic community. Our thoughts are with the families and loved ones of the victims of the July 2013 disaster.

The Minister of Transport has had the honour of meeting with residents of Lac-Mégantic on several occasions to hear their concerns. Representatives of the Prime Minister's Office and the minister's office also met with a group of people from Lac-Mégantic when they were in Ottawa.

Let us be clear. Rail safety remains an absolute priority for the minister, and our government is fully committed to improving it.

We will continue to monitor railway safety in the region, and over the past few years, departmental officials have increased the number of inspections in the Lac-Mégantic region related to equipment and operations, tracks, and grade crossings. We will not hesitate to take action in any case of noncompliance with federal rules and regulations.

We have already taken many steps to make the rail system and the transportation of dangerous goods by rail safer. For example, the minister has accelerated the phase-out of the old DOT-111 tanker cars.

Furthermore, the minister was honoured to have Denis Lauzon, the Lac-Mégantic fire chief, join him for the announcement of Transportation 2030, a plan that includes speeding up the review of the Railway Safety Act to build on our actions to improve rail safety across Canada.

I would also like to mention that the minister is personally in contact with the Mayor of Lac-Mégantic with regard to the rail bypass. We are looking at options on how to accelerate the study.

The study is still under way and that is why the Minister of Transport met with the Premier of Quebec a few weeks ago to discuss the bypass and the next steps in the process. We hope to participate as equal partners.

[Regional Economic Development, April 7th, 2017]

Mr. Speaker, ferries, and other marine transport, are absolutely key to our future economic health. There is no doubt about it.

We have had encouraging news. We want to make more investments in trade corridors and in our transportation to make it more effective, to make it safer and more secure. That is all part of our plan. We are moving forward, and we are going to make good progress.

[Rail Transportation, April 7th, 2017]

Mr. Speaker, our thoughts continue to go out to the families and loved ones of the victims of the tragedy of July 2013.

Our government is firmly committed to improving rail safety and that is an absolute priority for the minister. The study is still under way and that is why the minister met with the Premier of Quebec a few weeks ago to discuss the bypass and the next steps in the process. We hope to participate as equal partners.

[Air Transportation, April 7th, 2017]

Mr. Speaker, aviation safety is an absolute key priority for the government. With a background in aviation, we know that there are challenges when one is siting aerodromes.

It is the responsibility of the federal government to look into these issues and make these decisions. These inspections are under way, and we will provide more information as it becomes available.

[Government Appointments, April 7th, 2017]

Mr. Speaker, our government has adopted an appointment process that supports the recruitment and selection of high-calibre candidates, that is open and transparent, merit-based, and reflects Canada's diversity, including gender balance. These are eminently qualified individuals from legal, financial, community and academic backgrounds, and we are very pleased they have accepted these appointments.

[The Environment, April 3rd, 2017]

Madam Speaker, as I said earlier, improving marine safety and formalizing an oil tanker moratorium are indeed priorities of this government. The minister and his officials travelled across the country from Haida Gwaii to Iqaluit to St. John's to hear Canadians' perspectives in their own communities and territories on an oil tanker moratorium and improving marine safety. He met with stakeholders, non-governmental organizations, other levels of government, and indigenous groups to listen and gather input. All of this is to say that we have worked very hard to make sure all the voices were heard.

We are delivering on these priorities by investing in long-needed coastal protections under the oceans protection plan and we will be introducing moratorium legislation later this year. These initiatives will make our coastlines safer, more vibrant, and better protected.

[The Environment, April 3rd, 2017]

Madam Speaker, this plan will create a world-leading marine safety system, including new preventive and response measures to better protect our waters and coasts; restore and protect marine ecosystem and habitats; and strengthen partnerships with indigenous communities.

For example, we are going to ensure the Canadian Coast Guard has the equipment and tools it needs to better protect our waterways. That means more rescue stations and towing capacity to respond more quickly and effectively to save lives and protect the environment. We will also be supporting new and better methods for cleaning up oil spills, building local emergency response capacity, and strengthening our ability to move goods and resources safely.

On November 29, 2016, we also announced that the government is delivering on its commitment to Canadians to formalize a moratorium on crude oil tanker traffic on British Columbia's north coast. The Minister of Transport will be introducing legislation this year in order to provide a higher level of environmental protection for the Canadian coastline around Dixon Entrance, Hecate Strait, and Queen Charlotte Sound. The moratorium area extends from the Canada-U.S. border in the north down to the point on B.C.'s mainland adjacent to the northern tip of Vancouver Island, and this also includes Haida Gwaii.

The moratorium will apply to the shipment of crude oil as defined by the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships, but it will also apply to persistent oil products that are heavier and, when spilled, break up and dissipate slowly. These new initiatives will help us be better prepared and equipped to protect these sensitive coastal waters.

[The Environment, April 3rd, 2017]

Madam Speaker, improving marine safety and formalizing an oil tanker moratorium on British Columbia's north coast are indeed priorities of this government.

On November 7, 2016, Prime Minister Trudeau announced the oceans protection plan. This comprehensive national plan is an investment of $1.5 billion over five years in long-needed coastal protections. This plan—

[Operation UNIFIER, March 20th, 2017]

Mr. Chair, I would like to thank my hon. colleague for his question, because it is absolutely key to how we address situations like this in the future. It is not good enough just to talk about defence or just to talk about development or just to talk about diplomacy; we need all three pieces of the puzzle.

Thinking that there is just a military solution to this is a tad naive. We need to go past that. We need to plan a longer-term vision for the country and then bring all those resources, whether it is diplomacy, whether it is defence, whether it is development, to the fore and coordinate them so that we have a rational plan and a rational rollout on the ground.

Having a fragmented, uncoordinated approach has posed a problem in the past. I think we are doing a very good job to avoid that same challenge.

[Operation UNIFIER, March 20th, 2017]

Mr. Chair, as I mentioned during my speech, there are advantages to being part of a team, to having a coordinated long-term vision and the idea that a team can work together to maximize and rationalize all the support and effort that it is putting forward. That is why this kind of teamwork approach, a multinational approach, is exactly the right one going forward to make sure that all of the effort is not just in one sector, that it is equally shared, and that each nation gets to provide those pieces of that puzzle that they are most efficient at.

Moving forward, it is this teamwork that is really going to make the difference in the long term.