The Lac-Megantic disaster : Tragédie à Lac-Mégantic : quand cesseront-ils de se renvoyer la balle?

Or was Lac-Mégantic the consequence of a flawed regulatory regime — that in practice allows companies to make their own judgments about the bal- ance between cost considerations and the risks to public safety — exacer- bated by the enormous increase in the transportation of oil by rail over the last five years, with the people of Lac-Mégantic paying the terrible price? [...] The Lac-Mégantic Disaster 11 As the shock and trauma of the accident fade, and media coverage dimin- ishes, it will be easier for the government to manage the crisis of confidence that this disaster has engendered in the public mind. [...] Time will help the gov- ernment in its effort to revise the narrative so as to obscure the root cause of the accident, namely its failure to properly regulate the industry. [...] The move to deregulation, it stated, “allows rail com- panies to regulate themselves, removing the federal government’s ability to protect Canadians and their environment, and allowing the industry to hide critical safety information from the public.” It urged the government to restore Transport Canada’s regulatory oversight role.12 The Lac-Mégantic Disaster 23 William Brehl, president of the Team [...] Internal brief- ing notes prepared for the Transport Minister in 2011 warned the govern- ment that the industry lobby against stricter safety regulations was “counter to the public’s expectation for strict regulation and zero risk tolerance.”29 Despite the longstanding warnings from the Transportation Safety Board, Transport Canada appears not to have pressured the rail companies to re- place the