Train crash site one giant ‘crime scene.’
Transport Canada vowed to fix oversight issues two years ago
OTTAWA — Transport Canada officials said Tuesday that a number of safety concerns emerging in the aftermath of the Lac-Mégantic, Que. train derailment were already under review prior to the disaster, including reports warning about inadequate oversight and regulations.
The department had vowed in response to a critical audit from the government’s environment watchdog less than two years earlier to fix weaknesses in its oversight of the transportation of dangerous products — including oil — by road, air, rail, pipelines and shipments on water.
A department spokeswoman said it had improved its riskbased inspection planning, monitoring, and training procedures in recent years, but was unable to provide details of which commitments were still in progress.
At a news conference, senior department officials said one of the regulations “under review” was related to the use of a specific type of steel car — believed to be the type involved in the Lac-Mégantic derailment and identified in Canada as CTC-111A — following a Transportation Safety Board report from several years earlier.
“It takes about five years to develop a standard or a new standard,” said Marie France Dagenais, the director of a Transport Canada division overseeing the transportation of dangerous goods. “Because naturally we do it in co-operation with the industry and also representatives with the U.S. government because we want uniform standards in Canada and the United States.”
Dozens are believed to have died in Friday night’s explosion aboard a train, left unattended, that derailed in downtown Lac-Mégantic.
Luc Bourdon, a director of rail safety at the department, said he believed it was rare to see a train left without a crew on main tracks overnight, and that officials were reviewing rules on the use of handbrakes.
At the same news conference, the department’s assistant deputy minister responsible for safety and security, Gerard McDonald, said the government had implemented some of the recommendations from the audit by the federal environment commissioner, saying more details would be available later.
“There are still some issues that we haven’t yet fully resolved,” he said, without naming them.
A department spokeswoman, Maryse Durette, later sent Postmedia News a statement saying it was “on schedule to meet its commitments” prompted by the audit, including weaknesses in its inspections, planning and oversight.
At the time of the audit’s release in December 2011, Transport Canada said it agreed with all of the recommendations and agreed to review its procedures and enhance all of its practices, including better training for staff by April 2013.
The audit had assessed dozens of department inspections, revealing a troubling pattern that had persisted for years, driven in part by a “lack of guidance” and training for inspectors.
“Many of the issues our audit identified in Transport Canada are not new,” said the audit by former environment commissioner Scott Vaughan.
“An internal audit identified these same concerns over five years ago.
“The department has yet to correct some of the key weaknesses in its regulatory oversight practices.”