WHEREAS property owners had no choice in whether rail beds were constructed across their property; AND WHEREAS senior governments, both federally and provincially have chosen to allow for-profit corporations to influence changes to the Railway Safety Act Regulations to benefit for-profit corporations: THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the sections of the Railway Safety Act Regulations governing the payment of maintenance and materials for fencing on private property be reinstated immediately; AND BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Union of British Columbia Municipalities and the Federation of Canadian Municipalities undertake a major lobby to correct this blatant downloading of responsibility onto private landowners.
MINISTRY OF TRANSPORTATION The safe operation of railways operating in Province of British Columbia Province is of great importance. The Minister of Transportation Ministry has communicated his concerns to his federal counterpart and to CN on many occasions. The federal minister created the federal Railway Safety Act Review Panel in Spring 2007, and the Ministry will make a submission to this Review to ensure that the concerns of residents, local governments and the Province are made known to the federal government. With respect to derailments and spills involving dangerous goods and chemicals, there are protocols in place between the railways, CANUTEC, and the BC Provincial Emergency Program PEP. It has become known that these protocols do not include local governments, and this concern will be raised in the Ministrys submission to the Railway Safety Act Review Panel. The federal Railway Safety Act provides authority to enact regulations which set out access control for railway rights-of-way. However, no such regulations exist yet. Minister Falcon has requested of his federal counterpart to ensure that safe, consistent and fair regulations get put into place soon. CN has adopted a policy that fencing material may be offered to qualified applicants, in specific circumstances. Landowners who have livestock on their property can make application to CN to receive fencing material for property not fenced, or areas that require major repairs. Our expectation is that Transport Canadas regulations will provide ranchers along federally-regulated railways with a way to obtain compensation from the railway companies for the fencing repairs and upgrades they need, as well as for any livestock killed.