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Raitt speaks on Lac-Megantic rail disaster by David Lea Oakville Beaver Staff 11 | Thursday, September 19, 2013 | OAKVILLE BEAVER | www.insideHALTON.com Canada's work to prevent future transportation disasters, like the deadly July 6 train explosion in Lac-Megantic, Québec, was outlined Tuesday night by Halton MP and Minister of Transportation Lisa Raitt at the 59th annual Oakville Chamber of Commerce Chair's Dinner. Raitt spoke about the recent tragedy, which claimed 47 lives, and the government's response to it before a crowd of nearly 400 at the Oakville Conference Centre. The MP noted the incident happened days before she was appointed Minister of Transportation July 15. Two days after her appointment, Raitt went to LacMegantic to see the carnage for herself. "I came from Cape Breton, I have seen environmental degradation, but I don't think anyone could ever be prepared for what you see in terms of the devastation. You go up on the hill and look down to where, in the centre of the town, the rail cars collided and melted and exploded. Seventy-two rail cars are supposed to be in that little space and you can't imagine how it possibly happened," she said. "You see the buildings are down and you know the hospitals are not full because you either survived or you perished. It was that kind of an explosion." In the days following, the Halton MP said people would go to the town's church to post photos of missing loved ones in hopes they would be found. These hopes were dashed as operations moved from rescue to recovery. Raitt described the LacMegantic explosion as the biggest single rail disaster in Canadian history. "Safety in the transportation of dangerous goods before LacMegantic will be very different from what it is going to be post-Lac-Megantic," she said. The minister said numerous investigations are currently underway in the wake Canada Transportation Minister and Halton MP Lisa Raitt was the keynote speaker at the 59th annual Oakville Chamber of Commerce Chair's Dinner. | photo by David Lea ­ Oakville Beaver of the explosion. Two are being carried out by Transport Canada, one to determine whether any Railway Safety Act violations occurred, one to find out if there has been any violation of the Transportation of Dangerous Goods Act. The Transportation Safety Board is investigating the cause of the explosion and police are investigating whether criminal charges are warranted. As the train cars were filled with crude oil, Raitt noted the Senate Committee on Energy, the Environment and Natural Resources recently issued a report concerning the transportation of such materials. The MP said the government intends to closely examine its recommendations. Well before Lac-Megantic, Raitt said, the federal government was active in the area of rail safety. In 2009, she said, it increased funding to ensure Canada had 100 permanent rail inspectors, plus 35 inspectors to examine the transportation of dangerous goods. The minister said Canada also invested 65 per cent more on rail safety in 2013 than in 2006 and 2007 and has increased fines for companies that break safety regulations. Talking about this subject is important, Raitt said, as every day, oil and gas are shipped across Canada in a very routine way. Raitt acknowledged the Transportation Safety Board had called for railway tanker cars to be built to new standards before the Lac-Megantic explosion, but said the type of tanker cars involved in the disaster are currently in widespread use -- making up about 70 per cent of the current stock in all of North America. "Although we say the new standards will apply to new tanks, we really do have to take a look and make sure we are working with industry, with shippers, with chemical companies, with everybody with respect to these tank cars so that we can give assurances that we won't ever have a LacMegantic type of situation happen again or, at the very least, we have done all we can to minimize the risk," said Raitt. As oil is also transported by water, the minister said, the government has acted by increasing the number of foreign tankers inspected, increasing aerial surveillance of ships and researching how petroleum behaves in the marine environment among other measures. Traffic levels of crude will grow as Canada doubles its crude production output over the next 20 years.