Transport committee  For years, when someone wanted to start to operate a railway, they just had to go to the Canadian Transportation Agency and demonstrate that they had enough money to cover liability. One of the things the panel determined when it did its review was that there was probably a void,

Transport committee  The transportation of dangerous goods is under a different act than the Railway Safety Act, and there's a section on rail transportation. It concerns a different directorate when you talk about TDG.

Transport committee  Out of the 56 generated by the panel, we have addressed 47. Some of them will never be addressed because either we don't have constitutional authority to address them or we feel they have no value added. The 14 generated by SCOTIC were all addressed, except the ones where we were

Transport committee  I think it was excellent. Many of the recommendations were considered joint recommendations; we created joint working groups with unions, Transport, and the rail industry, and they were addressed by these joint working groups. For example, in terms of safety management systems, w

Transport committee  There are actually two things in tab 37 of your binder. One deals with the reporting of unsafe acts directly to Transport Canada without fear of reprisal. So that's going to be in place. Second, previous safety management system regulations required that a company involve emplo

Transport committee  ETCS is European train control system, which is a form of PTC that works with transponders on the track, a bit like what Amtrak has developed, which is not compatible with the electronic train management system adopted by other systems in the States. However, 20 years ago they de

Transport committee  It's not working right now. That's the issue. In the Railway Gazette of last month they published an article in which they say that after 20 years they do not have any locomotives from different railways that are compatible with others. So there are issues. The technology is wond

Transport committee  It would be whatever system we'd like to adopt, but it has to be one system so that it's fully compatible.

Transport committee  That's what we think, yes.

Transport committee  Yes, absolutely.

Transport committee  According to information we got from the FRA and the AAR, without the Chatsworth accident, the one that triggered PTC in the States, they figured there have been two accidents in 20 years where there have been multiple fatalities that would have been PTC preventable. The argument

Transport committee  To answer your question, Mr. Coderre, I will say that in six to nine months, we will publish regulations on railway crossings that will better define safety for crossings and that will impose new standards for the industry.

Transport committee  Last year, we invested more than $14 million in the program that helps railways and municipalities.

Transport committee  No. New regulations will be out in the coming months. They should be in the Canada Gazette before the fall.

Transport committee  I just wanted to add that Bill S-4 increases accountability for railways. In fact, with this bill, provincial jurisdiction railway cars that use federal railways will be covered by the act, which is not the case actually.