Canadian rail safety legislation to be updated
Tuesday, June 1st, 2010 - 11:03 am
In a press release today, Transport Canada (TC) outlined proposed amendments to the Railway Safety Act to:
- crack down on rule breakers with tough new monetary penalties and increased judicial penalties;
- strengthen safety requirements for railway companies;
- create whistleblower protection for employees who raise safety concerns; and
- require each railway to have an executive legally responsible for safety.
The Railway Safety Act (1989) assigns oversight of rail safety to Transport Canada, which is slated to receive $44 million over five years to enable more detailed inspections, safety management system audits and enforcement action in cases of non-compliance.
The Railway Safety Act was last amended in 1999. In February 2007, the Minister of Transport launched an independent advisory panel to review the operation and efficiency of the Railway Safety Act. It “concluded that Canadian railways are safe but should be safer.”1 The final report of March 2008 included 56 recommendations for improving rail safety.
The (House of Commons) Standing Committee on Transport, Infrastructure and Communities also studied rail safety and issued its own report in May 2008. It includes 14 additional recommendations, many building on the recommendations from the Railway Safety Act review.
The Government is implementing the recommendations by amending the Railway Safety Act and charging TC with addressing those recommendations that do not involve legislative amendments. The TC framework includes the Advisory Council on Railway Safety, and the Transport Canada-industry-union steering committee and working groups, which have developed action plans to implement the recommendations. (Source: Transport Canada; 1Stronger Ties: A Shared Commitment to Railway Safety - Report of the Advisory Panel (1.6 MB pdf); REPORT OF THE STANDING COMMITTEE ON TRANSPORT, INFRASTRUCTURE AND COMMUNITIES ON RAIL SAFETY IN CANADA (May 2008, 133 KB pdf))
