A Federally legislated ,rail industry, INSURANCE plan is proposed …. a ‘response’ to the Lac Mégantic rail tragedy..
While governments and rail industry chose to dither …many claimed that transport of oil products (in older rail tankers) is a risky plan.Railways jumped at the opportunity to increase revenue by transport of oil in existing rail cars –.
Insurance is one welcome component…but we need to see parallel , employee training material ,and design standards for rails and tankers !?
Sadly,insurance cannot ‘pay ‘for the Lac Megantic disaster—better to PREVENT oil related incidents ,where there are obvious public safety issues !
Two BC issues ;
1.Create a similar insurance plan (and equipment upgrading and employee training plans) for all ‘oil transport’ facilities—including railways,PIPELINES and TANKERS ,traversing our lands and waters .
2.’Adjust’ existing ,ill-conceived,BC pipeline proposals—to reduce the probability of an Exxon Valdes incident-–because we dithered !
That inevitable bitumen tanker spill ,suggests we should should not UNNECESSARILY INCREASE bitumen tanker traffic in our busy waters when there is a simple alternative pipelines plan !
Let the leaders LEAD or do they prefer to tally the cost of dithering ?!
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