Conservatives aren’t telling the truth on railway safety

Denis Lebel, Minister of Transport, has been making claims about the Conservative record on rail safety. Here’s the record:

• As we have previously pointed out, for rail safety, the federal government cut funding from $36.9 million in 2012-13 to $33.8 million in the 2013-14 Estimates

Other important details:

• Though the Minister stated that derailments had declined since 2007, serious injuries for reportable rail occurrences were 58 in 2007 and 72 in 2012
• Denis Lebel also said “Our government has not cut any inspectors”
• The planned full time equivalent staff for rail safety in the 2010-11 Transport Canada Report on Plans and Priorities was 215
• This has been reduced to 204 for every year to 2015-16 according to the most recent Report on Plan and Priorities tabled by the Minister.