Hello. My name is June Wolfrath. I would like to thank you for the opportunity to speak today.

After the Lac-Mégantic tragedy, in which 47 people died when a parked train that was insufficiently secured ran down a hill, derailed and exploded, there have been calls for increased scrutiny of rail safety, including in the Auditor General’s report. The Transportation Safety Board made five recommendations after its probe of the Lac-Mégantic rail disaster.

I respectfully ask the CN representatives to address two recommendations in particular.

The first is that emergency response assistance plans must be created by Canadian railway companies when large volumes of liquid hydrocarbons or hazardous materials are shipped. Since the TSB made this recommendation in January 2014, what emergency response assistance plans, if any, have been developed for the Port Robinson community? What recent steps has CN taken to operationalize the plan with local first response agencies and other support organizations?

The second is that railway companies should conduct strategic route planning and enhanced train operations for all trains carrying dangerous goods. Since the TSB made this recommendation in June 2014, what measures, if any, has CN taken to choose its routes carefully when shipping dangerous goods, which could mean diverting some shipments around populated residential areas, namely Port Robinson?

Further, the argument that route planning is not a realistic solution and that moving such shipments around populated areas is logistically prohibitive and would be costly is no excuse. Shipping hazardous goods remains an unacceptable hazard to the community of Port Robinson.

Rail incidents will happen. The timing of such incidents and their impacts to the community are unknown. For example, the Transportation Safety Board incident occurrence database indicates a number of runaway train near-misses, such as when two CN cars full of corrosive anhydrous ammonia ran uncontrolled onto the main line from Port Robinson near Niagara Falls, Ontario until a citizen spotted the cars and reported them. That was August 19, 2001.

Personally, living in Port Robinson has destroyed my quality of life. It's a living nightmare. I have now bouts of depression and often am short-tempered. I was never like this. The first year here, I slept perhaps three hours a night for 99% of the time. I have pain and fullness in my ears from constant jet plane-like noise in my backyard from accelerating locomotives. Dynamite charge-like bangs go off day and night. CN trains block our main roads because of the small yard. I have seen an ambulance with flashing lights turn around because of this. Idling occurs for 12 hours and more. My 93-year-old mother and I experience constant anxiety waiting for the next train and the next full day of noise. During the CN strike, locomotives were parked directly behind our homes for at least five days, idling 24-7, non-stop.

Last year, I took part in mediation with the CTA and CN. My complaint was noise and vibration. I was obligated to sign an NDA. Therefore, unfortunately, I cannot discuss important facts and, to be honest, I am afraid I may suffer retribution from CN if I slip up by mentioning anything like that.

Thank you so much for listening.

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