Transport committee  The department simply said it would check whether any studies existed. We are waiting for the follow-up.

Transport committee  No.

Transport committee  Indeed. We hope that the next responses we will receive from that department will be more detailed when it comes to what the department will do with regard to that study.

Transport committee  First of all, let me say that this was one of the concerns I raised during the opening remarks. We know that the Railway Association of Canada, the industry, and the railways are taking steps to try to improve the safety culture within the railways. We hope that the regulations will have very strict prescribed criteria in terms of what types of situations could lead to any kind of action.

Transport committee  Yes. I shouldn't use the word “immediate” because that has a very specific meaning, but if there's a threat to safety that's identified. It would be left up to the regulations to determine what constitutes a threat to safety and how that would be dealt with.

Transport committee  The TSB supports the draft legislation in its current form in terms of addressing the deficiency that we identified, which was our lack of data, and we believe that there will be a lot of positive benefits coming out of it for the railway companies and Transport Canada on the condition that the appropriate safeguards are in place.

Transport committee  Sorry, in breach of safety management systems...?

Transport committee  Again, our role is not one of compliance monitoring. That's Transport Canada's role, as the regulator. They conduct inspections and audits of railway companies, and other companies in other modes, that are required to have safety management systems. Where they identify non-conformance, they take the appropriate action.

Transport committee  We're very pleased to see that the Minister of Transport is moving forward with respect to the requirement to install voice and video recorders without waiting for the review of the Railway Safety Act. Of course, that leads to consequential changes to our act, so we're pleased about it.

Transport committee  I would like to clarify that the current Canadian regulations for the retention of cockpit voice recordings is only for 30 minutes. The TSB, following the accidents, recommended a minimum of two hours, which is the international standard. With respect to LVVR recordings, the duration—how long—is something that will be worked out as part of the regulations.

Transport committee  Again, some of these details will be worked out as part of the regulations. Right now, under the provisions of Bill C-49 the information gathered as part of random sampling or resulting from an incident or accident investigation conducted by the railway company may not be used for disciplinary purposes, competence, or for judicial proceedings unless it involved tampering with the equipment or there were a threat to safety determined as part of that sampling.

Transport committee  I want to be clear that the regulations would be enacted pursuant to the Railway Safety Act, which means they are Transport Canada's regulations. They're not TSB regulations. Transport Canada has a well-established policy and practice in that it has to go through consultation, Treasury Board, economy impact analysis, Canada Gazette, part I, etc.

Transport committee  I remind you of our watchlist of key safety issues. When it comes to railway transportation, we talked about the transportation of flammable liquids, and there are other actions to be taken. Although Transport Canada has been in the process of implementing a number of measures since 2013, there are still measures that could be adopted to reduce the risks associated with transporting dangerous goods.

Transport committee  In October 2016, the TSB, when updating its watchlist of key safety issues, mentioned, for the first time, Transport Canada's slowness in implementing some of its recommendations. At the time, 52 recommendations were over 10 years old and about 36 of them were over 20 years old.

Transport committee  First, most of this technology is on board the aircraft, vessel, or, in this case, train. It's not something that lends itself to automatic download necessarily. The specifics of that is part of what will be determined as part of the regulations in terms of who will have access.