Off the rails

CTV reports that the Canada Safety Council has joined the NDP's call for real regulation of Canadian railways (rather than the current system of self-regulation), warning that the recent history of derailments may only hint at the potential for disaster:

The Canada Safety Council is calling Canada's rail system a disaster waiting to happen, and it blames deregulation for the mess.

The council's Emile Therien told CTV News that one possible result could be the "major evacuation of a major urban area ... and all the attendant cost that goes along with that."

To ward that off, "CSC strongly urges the government to reinstitute the authority of Transport Canada," said the council's report, obtained Monday by CTV News...

B.C. New Democrat MP Peter Julian added his voice to the criticism.

"Since self-managed safety was put into place, it has been a disaster for Canadians. Lives have been lost; we've seen environmental devastation," he said.

Of course, a mere reasonable call for action has never been enough to sway the Cons. And all indications are that Lawrence Cannon's department will plan to wait until 2008 to even conduct a review of rail safety.

But it's still worth highlighting how wanton deregulation has made Canadians less safe, for the sake of slowing the progress of similar efforts if nothing else. And hopefully it won't be too late to reverse nearly a decade's worth of damage to rail safety before a large-scale disaster does take place.