Elizabeth May! :-) Thank you for copying me on your email to the Honourable Lisa Raitt, Minister of Transport, and the Right Honourable Stephen Harper, calling for an immediate ban on shipping oil in 111A tanker cars, reinstate mandatory two-person minimum train crews and beginning a comprehensive and independent safety review on all hydrocarbon transportation. Every time I think of what happened in Lac-Mégantic, I have a hard time getting past the sense of total grief that a beautiful little town should have been victim of such a random, devastating and shocking event. It can really only be compared to a town being suddenly, inexplicably bombed in peacetime. It is a terrible blow from which the community will require many years to recover. There is an inquiry now underway but will take some time. The levels of liability, negligence, issues of criminal negligence, are all issues to be determined. As the investigation is into a crime, there is the possibility of criminal charges and jail time. An investigation of this magnitude needs to be respected. With that said, the legality of leaving that train, unattended, engine on, with 74 railcars full of light crude oil, perched in a spot where should brakes fail, gravity and momentum would send the train barrelling into the community below, was specifically approved by Transport Canada. It is far too early to know all the answers, but I think common sense dictates that some observations are obvious. I hope that the Harper administration will take this inquiry seriously and implement much needed changes as quickly as possible so we can avoid another tragedy like the one in Lac-Mégantic. The Green Party has been calling for a Royal Commission into Railway Safety since 2011: greenparty.ca/media-release/2011-02-24/greens-call-royal-commission-railway-safety It is important to continually review procedures and regulations to ensure everything is being done to reduce rail related accidents. Given the string of incidents in recent years, such as the derailment near Medicine Hat, the accident in Burlington, and the railway bridge incident with railcars carrying diluent due to Calgary floods, it is time for a close look into rail transportation policy, both passenger and freight. For more on rail safety, I invite you to visit my MP website, where you will find more information from my recent blog on the topic, and some comments that I made at a press conference on July 8th while in Montreal: elizabethmaymp.ca/news/blogs/2013/07/15/trains-pipelines-and-disasters/ elizabethmaymp.ca/news/publications/press-releases/2013/07/08/lac-megantic-a-terrible-tragedy/ Thank you for contacting me and for expressing your concerns. I hope you continue to speak out for the issues that matter to you, including improved rail safety in Canada. Sincerely, Elizabeth May, O.C., M.P. Member of Parliament for Saanich–Gulf Islands Leader of the Green Party of Canada
Posted on: Tue, 23 Jul 2013 16:37:19 +0000
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