Mayors want more say on rail safety

The Lac Megantic train derailment that killed 47 people and destroyed the central core of the small eastern Quebec town on July 6 continues to send out political ripples.

On Monday, a group of mayors from across the country held their first conference call as part of a new working group on rail safety.

The group, known as the Federation of Canadian Municipalities working group, wants the federal government to involve mayors to a greater degree in dealing with rail safety.

The mayors say they are closer to the lines that go through their municipalities and are able to keep a better check on the quality of those lines.

The federal government is responsible for regulating rail safety, but municipal fire and police officials are usually the first on the scene of an accident.

The FCM working group also issued a statement calling on the federal government to respond to safety recommendations made by the Transportation Safety Board. The board is investigating the causes of the Lac Megantic disaster.

Last week, Transport Canada issued an emergency directive that requires all rail operatives to have at least two qualified people on board when transporting dangerous goods. Only one worker was on duty and had retired for the night on the runaway train that crashed into the centre of Lac Megantic.

Transport Canada also updated the rules related to handbreaks and securing unattended trains.

In June municipal anger boiled over during flooding in Calgary, Alberta, when a Canadian Pacific Railway train derailed, leaving six train cars carrying petroleum on a partially collapsed bridge.

At the time, the mayor of Calgary, Naheed Nenshi, said it was a “constant frustration for municipalities that they have no say or control over rail companies that run through their communities.”

There was also movement from Quebec’s provincial government on Monday. It issued a legal notice that companies involved in the derailment cover the full cost of the cleanup.