Transport Canada failed to follow up on dangerous goods violations: report

Transport Canada did not follow up on a number of violations made by companies transporting dangerous items like crude oil, according to the latest audit by Canada’s federal environment commissioner.

The report, tabled Tuesday in Parliament, showed that the department had still not addressed all the recommendations from a 2011 audit of the transportation of dangerous products, nine years later.

This included fixing the approval process for emergency response plans so that dangerous goods are not shipped without the department having a detailed view of what will happen if something goes wrong.

Some of those plans are being held up, according to the report by Andrew Hayes, interim commissioner of the environment and sustainable development, because the department had not yet developed national firefighting criteria related to flammable liquids, which was recommended in the aftermath of the 2013 Lac-Mégantic rail disaster.

The findings are doubly critical given the two oil train derailments near Guernsey, Sask., in December 2019 and February 2020, said Hayes, which led to a voluntary evacuation order and over a million litres of leaked crude.

“Transport Canada has more work to do to address problems with inspections and emergency plans that we raised almost a decade ago,” Hayes said at a press conference in Ottawa.

“Accidents can happen. I can’t say that there won’t be another accident that has serious release of dangerous goods ... what I think is important at this point is for Transport Canada to complete the work that it needs to do.”

The department said it agreed with the audit’s conclusions and would work to improve its oversight for followup activities and update its procedures to assess emergency plans.

No followup for almost a third of violations examined

Companies that handle or transport dangerous goods in Canada — everything from explosives and toxic or corrosive chemicals to flammable or radioactive material, crude oil and other petroleum products — are subject to federal inspections under Canada’s Transportation of Dangerous Goods Act.

Almost 300 full-time Transport Canada staff carry out more than 5,000 of these inspections per year, Hayes’ report says, looking for violations like mislabelling, missing documentation, improper packaging or inadequate training for handlers.

Uncovering these offences and enforcing compliance is key to protecting public safety, noted Hayes. If dangerous items are not effectively contained or mislabelled, for example, they could be released into the environment, contaminating an area or injuring first responders.

As well, firms that transport certain goods “representing a high risk to public safety” are supposed to produce an “emergency response assistance plan” that the department then approves for use.

In 2011, the commissioner found that the department had failed to follow up consistently to make sure companies were fixing the problems that inspectors had flagged, nor was it offering guidance on how to conduct followup activities. Meanwhile, almost half of the emergency plans had not been granted final approval.

The department had given only an “interim” approval for almost half, or 49 per cent, of the 926 emergency plans submitted by regulated companies, the 2011 audit found.

New guidance documents, in the form of manuals and user guides, have since been developed or improved, according to Hayes’ report.

But in a sample analysis of violations made in 2018-19, the commissioner found that in 18 of 60 of them, or 30 per cent, “Transport Canada did not verify that companies took corrective actions to return to compliance.”

In some cases, violations require a followup within 90 days, but in four of 10 such cases studied, Hayes said no followup had been done.

Hayes also found that the department had “clarified requirements” for the approval of emergency plans, and put in place new systems for staff to document their reviews of the plans.

But the government was not meeting its own deadlines to finalize the interim approvals, said the commissioner. As of November 2019, 194 of the department’s 923 plans, or 21 per cent, had interim approval. Of those, 70, or 36 per cent, had been in interim mode for more than three years, and 22 had been stuck in interim for over a decade.

Transport Canada said it would “strengthen the application of, and the supporting training on, oversight procedures for followup activities conducted by inspectors after they detect non-compliance by regulated entities.”

“Management will ensure that inspectors are aware of updated procedures and are able to apply appropriate quality controls. This is to be completed by spring 2021,” said the department.

The government said some of the emergency plans required on-site visits or new criteria to verify, and that had yet to be carried out.

But the department committed to developing, by the end of the year, new “tools” to track investigations for emergency plans and said it would determine the criteria for flammable liquids by Jan. 1, 2021.

Carl Meyer / Local Journalism Initiative / Canada’s National Observer