Thank you for the invitation to appear before the Standing Committee on Public Accounts. My name is Michael Keenan, Deputy Minister of Transport Canada. I am joined by Aaron McCrorie, Associate Assistant Deputy Minister, Safety and Security, and Michael DeJong, Director General, Rail Safety.
Transport Canada is responsible for promoting safe, secure, efficient and environmentally responsible transportation. Among these activities, safety is our top priority.
In this context, I would like to thank the Auditor General for the incredibly important work done on rail safety, from the original audit in 2013 to the follow-up audit in 2021. Both audits challenged us, and guided us, to do better in our commitment to being a world-class regulator, and to improve the safety of Canada’s railway network.
The Auditor General’s initial audit in 2013 was carried out in the context of a terrible tragedy. The June 2013 train derailment at Lac-Mégantic devastated a community, and cost 47 lives. It exposed major gaps in rail safety, and led to a fundamental transformation of our oversight regime.
As part of this transformation, Transport Canada introduced a whole suite of stronger rules and regulations. I would like to highlight a few examples.
- In 2014, we developed requirements for Emergency Response Assistance Plans when railways carry dangerous goods.
- In 2015, Transport Canada brought forward new requirements for thicker steel on tank cars carrying flammable liquids.
- In the same year, we introduced Administrative Monetary Penalties to help incentivize better safety performance.
- In 2016, we established the Key Trains and Key Routes Rule, which set out strict requirements for safely transporting dangerous goods by rail. This included reduced train speeds and stronger requirements for track inspections.
- Also in 2016, we established stronger liability and compensation regulations, which require railways to have a minimum level of insurance based on the type of dangerous goods that they carry.
Beyond stronger rules and regulations, we also needed to improve our presence in the field and cover more locations. So, we hired more inspectors. Since 2013, we increased the number of rail safety inspectors from 107 to 155.
With more inspectors, we were able to increase the number of annual inspections from 20,000 per year in 2013, to an average of 35,000 per year, and peaking in 2019/20 at 40,581 inspections, which was the highest number of rail safety inspections ever done in Canada.
Equipped with the results of these inspections, we began to shape a risk-based approach to our oversight role. As noted in the Auditor General’s follow-up audit, our inspections and oversight activities are now specifically targeting areas of greatest risk.
We use our risk-based approach to systematically identify key factors causing accidents – and then take aim at these key factors through targeted regulatory action. For example, in October 2020, we approved the Locomotive Voice and Video Regulations, which helps us to better understand safety issues and risks. And, in November 2020, we approved the new Duty/Rest Rules for Railway Operating Employees, which align with the latest in fatigue science.
We have also implemented a number of important safety measures in 2021. Since the follow-up audit was published, we established new rules that further reduce speeds for trains carrying dangerous goods, required more frequent track inspections, and required risk mitigation plans to address the risks caused by cold temperature.
These changes are directly improving safety. I would like to quote the Transportation Safety Board, which tweeted in March that: “959 railway accidents were reported to the TSB in 2020, a 12% decrease from the five-year average of 1091. And 59 rail-related fatalities reported in 2020, 13 fewer than the previous year.”
These statistics show that our improved oversight is leading to better results. But, as part of our commitment to being a world-class regulator, we are striving to achieve zero deaths and zero injuries. There is much more work still to be done.
For example, as the Auditor General found in the follow-up audit, Transport Canada needs to measure the effectiveness of our oversight activities, including the effectiveness of safety management systems. By way of context, Transport Canada’s Safety Management Systems Regulations were repealed and replaced in 2015. These regulations established a clear requirement for all railway companies in Canada to integrate safety culture into their day-to-day operations.
After these regulations were established, Transport Canada’s initial focus was to ensure that railway companies were complying with the basic requirement to have safety management systems in place. We finished this work in June 2020, completing audits of all railway companies operating in Canada.
We are now in position to start auditing the effectiveness of safety management systems. These audits will start in September 2021.
Our work in this area is an important example of how Transport Canada is taking action on all of the Auditor General’s follow-up recommendations, which will help protect Canadians who live and work along rail lines. Thank you.