Rathnelly residents concerned about the safety of the CP Rail line running along Macpherson Avenue were not given much comfort in a recent report by the federal Auditor-General, Karen Hogan.
The report chastised Transport Canada for moving too slowly to improve rail safety in the eight years since the fiery crash of a train carrying crude oil at Lac-Mégantic, Que., claimed 47 lives. It concluded that Transport Canada could not demonstrate that its oversight of Canada’s rail companies had improved their compliance with safety regulations.
The focus of the investigation was the Safety Management System (SMS) that’s been in place for two decades and under which each of Canada’s 75 railway companies are responsible for the day-to-day safety of their operations according to regulations set by the government. The Auditor-General found some progress in Transport Canada’s oversight but it criticized the department not having yet assessed the effectiveness of the SMS despite many reports in the past 14 years that recommended it do so. Ms. Hogan called the department’s failure to assess the effectiveness of SMS “a big loophole.”
In the wake of the report, Transport Minister Omar Alghabra pledged to strengthen the safety management systems. But to Bruce Campbell, author of a 2018 book on the Lac Mégantic tragedy, it was a familiar story from the government. He said Transport Canada’s resources have been systematically squeezed over the years, leaving the oversight of the railways to desk-top audits rather than on-site inspections of railways cars, tracks and signal systems.
Mr. Campbell said the responsibility to protect the public rests with the government and that can be in conflict with the mandate of railway companies to maximize shareholder value. “When they conflict, safety becomes compromised,” he said. “The railways have had the upper hand for far too long. The power relationship must be rebalanced.”
There were 959 accidents on Canada’s rail line in 2020 that claimed the lives of 59 people. Most of the accidents were derailments although most of the deaths involved trespassers. Eighty-one of this accidents involved dangerous goods, including crude oil, propane and ethanol. A report last October by the Environmental Commissioner found that Transport Canada has still not resolved problems with conveying dangerous goods that were identified in its 2011 audit and that “the window for a recurrence of a Lac-Mégantic-type disaster is still open.”
The train involved in the 2013 crash in Quebec had passed through Rathnelly on the CP Rail line a few days earlier. Rail Safety First, an organization involving neighbourhood residents, continues to actively monitor the rail safety situation.