Environment Canada appears poised to submit Canada's railways to closer scrutiny, according to recent letters from federal environment minister David Anderson to David Bradley, Canadian Trucking Alliance (CTA) chief executive officer. The letters were in response to representations CTA made this summer to alert the federal minister to the uneven environmental regulatory field on which the two transportation sectors operate.
"The preferential treatment of railways in Canadian regulatory policy is one issue that the CTA has consistently raised in representations to various federal departments," said Bradley. "It now appears that these are starting to pay off and that the federal government will take a closer look at how railways are regulated."
According to Bradley, this is a significant development in that it may signal the beginning of a more balanced approach to transportation regulation in Canada.
CTA's representations referred specifically to the railways' use of a 1995 memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Environment Canada to escape emission regulation and the need to bring off-road diesel fuel sulphur levels in line with those of the trucking industry.
The environment minister told CTA that his department was reviewing the MOU and had already approached the Railway Association of Canada. He added that it had never been the department's intention to have the MOU used to exempt railways and their fuels from regulation.
On the issue of sulphur content in diesel, the minister confirmed that Environment Canada was looking at reducing sulphur levels in offroad diesel. A notice of intent on the matter will be published before the end of 2000.