Lisa Raitt

[Questions on the Order Paper, March 12th, 2015]

Mr. Speaker, Canada Post has been working diligently on the pay equity file to ensure accurate data and process payments as quickly as possible.

Canada Post has sent out payments to almost 10,000 individuals identified as eligible. Every current and former eligible employee that Canada Post has been able to locate a current address for has been paid. Canada Post is working with the Canada Revenue Agency to find others that it may not have current information for, in order to complete any outstanding cases.

[Canada Post, March 11th, 2015]

Mr. Speaker, as we all know, Canada Post is facing a serious issue with respect to its ability to be self-sustaining. As a result, it has developed a five-point plan. One of these points is to make sure that we move to community mailboxes.

In siting these mailboxes, Canada Post must work with the communities and it must consult with Canadians. It consulted with Canadians before it introduced the five-point plan and it should consult with Canadians now as it moves forward in siting these community mailboxes.

[Rail Transportation, March 11th, 2015]

Mr. Speaker, I greatly appreciate the opportunity to talk about the safe and accountable rail act, which our government introduced last week. I certainly do hope that the opposition members will support it full-throated because of the great things it would do. For example, it would make sure that polluters do pay in the case of an untimely accident with respect to rail.

Specifically, it is important to note that it is a very comprehensive regime, with $1 billion in liability insurance backed up by a $250-million compensation fund paid by shippers and all backstopped by being able to go out and charge railroads, should it be in excess of that.

[Rail Transportation, March 11th, 2015]

Mr. Speaker, the actual numbers of rail safety inspectors are up by 10%, and the numbers of dangerous goods inspectors are up by over 85%.

That being said, I would like to inform that House that today, my officials at Transport Canada have provided an information update online with respect to the new car standard that they are looking at, which increases what we have been working on with respect to tank car and containment here in the country. I invite the hon. members to take a look at it.

[Rail Transportation, March 10th, 2015]

Mr. Speaker, this year this government announced that the Hon. David Emerson would be leading the transportation review of the Canada Transportation Act to look at our logistics chain across the country to ensure we are meeting the needs of services today and that we are ready for the future as well.

I look forward to all of the recommendations from Mr. Emerson. I also encourage people who are at the port of Halifax, or any other stakeholder who is interested, to ensure they give their advice and presentations to this committee.

[Rail Transportation, March 10th, 2015]

Mr. Speaker, last April we made announcements with respect to a very vigorous outrunning of these cars. We said that the 5,000 at most risk would be phased out immediately. We did that within 30 days. We also gave a timeline of three years for the next most at-risk cars to be retrofitted to a new standard, and we made that very clear.

The U.S. has not done any of these things. Indeed, we work with them, and the fundamental reason we work with them on this is that the trains cannot stop at the border and change their cars out and then continue to the other country. We have to do this together with the United States.

[Rail Transportation, March 10th, 2015]

Mr. Speaker, of course, we are very grateful that there are no injuries with respect to this latest derailment.

As well, I would like to take the opportunity to thank the first responders in the community for working so well with CN and making sure that they were able to put the fire out, which they were able to do this morning.

I am very proud of our record. The things that we have done since the tragic incident at Lac-Mégantic are very fulsome and very complete. We have included new tank car standards, new operation requirements for trains and reduced train speed. New compensation liability requirements have been proposed.

We keep working on the file and we will continue to do so.

[Rail Transportation, March 9th, 2015]

Mr. Speaker, we have an excellent relationship with UMQ as well as with the Federation of Canadian Municipalities. Without their advisory group, we would not have been able to get as far as we have and be able to introduce legislation that looks at all the concerns they had and make sure that we listen to those concerns and entrench them into law.

I continue to work with those institutions and appreciate very much everything they have done to make sure we have a solid piece of legislation.

[Rail Transportation, March 9th, 2015]

Mr. Speaker, last year we took an unprecedented move of indicating that over the next three years we would be moving out of the system the DOT-111 cars.

We are working with the United States on what a new system will be in terms of a new tank car standard. We have changed the operating procedures for railways in our country. We have added inspectors. We have invested hundreds of millions of dollars.

The safety and security of Canadians in the transportation of dangerous goods is our top priority. We work diligently on this, and we will continue to do so.

[Rail Transportation, March 9th, 2015]

Mr. Speaker, always, the safety and security of Canadians is Transport Canada's top priority. In the past number of years, strong statements and strong actions have been taken with respect to trains and the movement of goods and transportation of dangerous goods in the country. Most notably is the fact that we have moved 5,000 cars out of the system and that we have brought in new standards to be followed for tank cars. We are working with the United States on a new tank car standard to be utilized in the future. We have been working diligently on this file since then.

We need to wait to see the response of the Transportation Safety Board as to why this accident happened.