Vol. 138, No. 47 — November 20, 2004

Regulations Amending the Notice of Railway Works Regulations

Statutory authority

Railway Safety Act

Sponsoring department

Department of Transport

REGULATORY IMPACT
ANALYSIS STATEMENT

(This statement is not part of the Regulations.)

Description

The Notice of Railway Works Regulations (the Regulations) prescribe the kinds of railway works for which notice must be given. This proposed regulatory amendment to the Regulations responds to an issue raised in a letter received from the Maritimes and Northeast Pipeline regarding the installation of a longitudinal natural gas pipeline. The pipeline was determined to be a utility crossing and thus a railway work under section 3 of the Regulations, which indicates that these railway works are a kind for which notice shall be given. However, section 5 of the Regulations is incomplete as to who notice must be given in such a case.

The purpose of these proposed amendments to the Regulations is to correct an oversight when the Regulations were initially drafted in 1988 and which remained when the Regulations officially came into force on January 17, 1991.

The proposed amendments to the Regulations would clarify that a utility crossing is prescribed as a railway work of a kind for which notice shall be given by adding paragraph 3(f) resulting in a specific reference to utility crossings in the list of prescribed works. In section 5 of the proposed amendments to the Regulations, the term "road crossing" is replaced, where necessary, by the term "crossing work" which, pursuant to its definition in the Railway Safety Act (RSA), encompasses both road crossings and utility crossings, in order to identify the persons to whom notice is to be given for utility crossings.

Alternatives

The kind of works included in these proposed amendments to the Regulations are those that are considered significant in terms of safe railway operations and which can be of concern to municipalities, other parties and the general public. The proposing party is required under these Regulations to give notice of these works to relevant parties sufficiently in advance in order that any objections on their part with the proposed railway works may be taken into consideration and acted upon, if necessary, before commencement of work.

The status quo, which is the current Regulations, is unacceptable since a notice must be given for certain railway works, such as pipelines. However, the current Regulations contain inaccuracies since they do not indicate to whom such a notice must be provided for this type of railway work. Therefore, the proposed amendments to the Regulations are necessary to correct inaccuracies.

Benefits and costs

Given the nature of this proposed amendment, there is no change expected in the cost to industry as they already provide notice to persons prescribed in subsection 5(1) of the Regulations.

A strategic environmental assessment (SEA) was conducted, in the form of a Preliminary Scan. The SEA concluded that the proposal is not likely to result in important environmental effects.

Consultation

An electronic message and/or facsimile will be sent to all current railway safety stakeholders to inform them of this proposed regulatory initiative. Key stakeholders include federally regulated railways, provincial government departments responsible for transportation, relevant associations and other organizations.

Compliance and enforcement

Compliance with the proposed regulatory requirements will be enforced in accordance with section 41 of the RSA which contains provisions for financial penalties that are applicable for contraventions to regulations. Subsection 41(3) of the RSA specifies that any contraventions with regulations constitute separate offences for each day on which they occur. This enforcement scheme creates an effective deterrent for any contraventions to regulations concerning failure to properly notify interested parties of any proposed railway works.

Contact

Don Pulciani, Director, Safety and Regulatory Affairs Branch, Railway Safety Directorate, Transport Canada, Minto Place, Enterprise Building, 14th Floor, 427 Laurier Avenue W, Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0N5, (613) 990-8690 (telephone), (613) 990-7767 (facsimile).

PROPOSED REGULATORY TEXT

Notice is hereby given, pursuant to subsection 50(1) (see footnote a) of the Railway Safety Act (see footnote b), that the Governor in Council, pursuant to subsection 8(1) (see footnote c) and paragraph 47(a) of that Act, proposes to make the annexed Regulations Amending the Notice of Railway Works Regulations.

Interested persons may make representations to the Minister of Transport concerning the proposed Regulations within 90 days after the date of publication of this notice. All such representations must cite the Canada Gazette, Part I, and the date of publication of this notice, and be sent to Don Pulciani, Director, Safety and Regulatory Affairs Branch, Railway Safety Directorate, Transport Canada, Minto Place, Enterprise Building, 14th Floor, 427 Laurier Avenue W, Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0N5, (613) 990-8690 (Telephone), (613) 990-7767 (Facsimile).

Ottawa, November 15, 2004

EILEEN BOYD
Assistant Clerk of the Privy Council

REGULATIONS AMENDING THE NOTICE
OF RAILWAY WORKS REGULATIONS

AMENDMENTS

1. Section 3 of the Notice of Railway Works Regulations (see footnote 1) is amended by striking out the word "and" at the end of paragraph (d) and by replacing paragraph (e) with the following:

(e) the construction or alteration of any line works that may affect drainage on land adjoining the land on which a line of railway is situated; and

(f) the construction or alteration of utility crossings.

2. (1) The portion of paragraph 5(1)(b) of the Regulations before subparagraph (i) is replaced by the following:

(b) in the case of any party proposing to construct a crossing work, excluding the installation of a road crossing warning system, to the following, namely,

(2) The portion of paragraph 5(1)(c) of the Regulations before subparagraph (i) is replaced by the following:

(c) in the case of any party proposing to alter a crossing work or to install or alter a road crossing warning system, to the following, namely,

COMING INTO FORCE

3. These Regulations come into force on the day on which they are registered.

[47-1-o]

Footnote a

S.C. 1999, c. 9, s. 36

Footnote b

R.S., c. 32 (4th Supp.)

Footnote c

S.C., 1999, c. 9, s. 5

Footnote 1

SOR/91-103

NOTICE:
The format of the electronic version of this issue of the Canada Gazette was modified in order to be compatible with hypertext language (HTML). Its content is very similar except for the footnotes, the symbols and the tables.

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