New set of rail safety rules announced by Ottawa
— The latest set of rail safety measures announced in the wake of the deadly Lac Megantic derailment of 2013 do not come with any additional financial resources for the federal regulator, Transport Canada.
Transport Minister Lisa Raitt says her department has the resources to ensure rail safety - notwithstanding an auditor general's report that points to critical training deficiencies and staff shortages.
The specific measures released Wednesday follow the final report from the Transportation Safety Board's investigation into the fiery crash that claimed 47 lives in July 2013, the result of an unattended train loaded with crude oil careening downhill into the centre of Lac-Megantic, Que.
New safety protocols include tougher hand brake requirements for parked trains, more research on volatile crude oil properties and a requirement that short-line rail companies, such as the one involved in the Lac-Megantic crash, submit training plans for review.
The department is also seeking 10 new safety auditors across Canada — “an incredible increase” according to Raitt.
Raitt, speaking in the Commons foyer, told reporters the government wants “to better protect Canadians and their communities, but we have to maintain that transportation network that we actually need in order to move goods around our country and support our economy.”
The measures come as oil-by-rail shipments are increasing exponentially. The Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers estimates the rail industry will move 700,000 barrels of Western Canadian oil a day by 2016, up from just 500 carloads - less than 300,000 barrels - in all of 2009.