Lisa Raitt

[Rail Transportation, October 29th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, indeed we have been working very hard on this particular issue. It is this government that has brought in grade crossing regulations in order to deal with the situation the hon. member has outlined, which is a case in which the municipality and the rail operator do not agree on where, when, or how a grade crossing separation could be put in place.

We encourage the parties to work with these regulations, and of course we at Transport Canada will be there to facilitate if we can.

[Marine Transportation, October 29th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, last year my colleague, then minister of transport, set in place a world-class tanker safety panel, chaired by a very eminent captain and former CEO of Port Metro Vancouver. The panel found that we were prepared to respond to spills in the country, but we could do better. We have taken its recommendations and we have been implementing these recommendations and have been announcing this as we go along.

We want to make sure that people are prepared for a spill and that we try to prevent spills as well, and in the case of a spill that has happened, that the taxpayer is protected from having to cover the price of the entire spill.

[Canada Post, October 29th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, as I have indicated before, currently two-thirds of Canadians do not receive their mail at their door but go to community mailboxes. I know Canada Post is now rolling that out across the country to the remaining one-third of Canadian households. As it goes through that process, I encourage people to work with it to make sure that any complaints they have are brought to the attention of Canada Post.

[Canada Post, October 29th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, in 2013 Canada Post delivered 1.2 billion fewer pieces of mail than it had done in the previous years. As a result, it has to make sure that it continues to be self-sufficient, as per its act. It has devised a five-point plan. In that five-point plan, it is taking the final one-third of households in this country that do receive mail at their door to community mailboxes. It is rolling out that change across the country now. I encourage people to work with Canada Post to make sure that it gets it right.

[Rail Transportation, October 29th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, the reality in this country is that there are 46,000 kilometres of track.

Over 20 years ago it was recognized that in order to properly deal with the risks and inspections, we would create something called the safety management system. It is world renowned. It is state of the art. That is what we utilize here in Canada.

The Transportation Safety Board has clearly said that it is the way to go. That is what countries do around the world when they are dealing effectively both with inspections and with audit of safety culture in railways.

[Rail Transportation, October 29th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, I have issued numerous emergency directives. We have also included ministerial orders to ensure that we have the safest system that we can in Canada.

We have also invested in rail safety, increasing the budgets for rail safety year after year to ensure that they have the resources they need at Transport Canada to do the work that we expect them to do, and they will continue to do that work.

[Rail Transportation, October 29th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, indeed, we have already increased the number of inspectors in this country. We put $100 million into this file.

More importantly, we continue to work on the rail safety measures because we want to ensure that we have a transportation system that works.

The unfortunate incident in Lac-Mégantic was due to the fact that somebody did not follow the rules. We have rules in place for a reason. They are being prosecuted under the fullest extent of the law, and that is the appropriate way to deal with it.

[Marine Transportation, October 28th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, our government believes in responsible resource development and that is why we are signing so many free trade agreements. Part of that as well is being ready for the increase in traffic.

That is why about a year ago we embarked upon the world-class tanker safety system. We have introduced a number of measures that do uphold the three pillars, which are to prevent a spill from happening, to respond if it does unfortunately happen and to ensure that taxpayer dollars are kept safe. Under prevention, we have one of the best smart navigation systems in the world and we will continue to invest in that.

[Official Languages, October 28th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, the Supreme Court ruled on this issue. We respect the Supreme Court's decision and we expect Air Canada to comply with the Air Canada Public Participation Act.

[Rail Transportation, October 27th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, let us be clear. Railways must report rail occurrences under the Transportation Safety Board regulations.

The Transportation Safety Board said today that it has found cases when they have not. This is completely unacceptable. We expect that TSB will take whatever precautions and whatever action it can to ensure that they are enforcing these regulations.