LATEST RAIL SAFETY REPORT

A working group including the Canadian Association of Fire Chiefs as well as emergency response contractors have sent a report to Transport Minister Lisa Raitt last month. The report makes it very clear that "...local first responders aren't equipped to deal with major flammable liquid fires and that Transport Canada does not have the resources to "...approve, inspect and maintain current emergency response plans, let alone enough funding for a recommended expansion of the program.'. Today's Waterloo Region Record has this story "Rail safety report gets "urgent" read".

Furthermore there are apparently no inventories of equipment necessary for fighting oil fires of the magnitude that ocurred in Lac Megantic last summer and data does not exist to advise what quantities of dangerous goods, by what means and over which transportation corridors are being shipped in Canada. Overall it once again makes it clear that last summer's disaster was not an anomoly but in fact was the expected outcome of negligence and oversight by our federal government.