National Observer, Vancouver, BC 9/6:
Bruce Campbell: There's less than meets the eye for oil tank phase-out
Communities face "unacceptable risk" from oil train accidents says US National Transportation Safety Board member
Lac Megantic-type oil cars to be phased out this fall
New trains are only “slightly improved” - have already exploded in slow speed accidents
Will be carrying crude through Canada, US until 2025
At the end of July, Transport Minister Marc Garneau announced Canada would accelerate the phase-out of the class of rail tank cars that exploded in Lac-Mégantic in July 2013, taking 47 lives. Rather than wait until 2018, as in the U.S., the minister told media Canada's legacy DOT-111 cars would cease transporting crude oil by October 31, 2016.
Garneau called the move “another crucial step in improving the safety of communities along our railway lines.” Transportation Safety Board Chair Kathy Fox said it was “a positive step (that) highlights Canadian leadership in terms of action taken to improve tank car safety.” And a number of Quebec politicians, including the Québec Union of Municipalities, likewise welcomed the decision. But was it really such a crucial step? A closer inspection shows the risk to communities along rail lines used to transport oil and other dangerous products, remains high.
Bruce Campbell is a visiting fellow at the University of Ottawa faculty of law. Former executive director of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, he is a recipient of the Law Foundation of Ontario Community Leadership in Justice Award
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