IMPORTANT BAFFINLAND NEWS – Canadian Transportation Agency demands more clarity from Baffinland for railroad
DID News Alert On May 15th the Canadian Transportation Agency (CTA), an independent economic regulator under the authority of the Canadian Parliament that regulates air, rail and marine transportation according to the Canada Transport Act, met to discuss the Baffinland Mary River project’s railway and marine transportation plan.
They concluded that Baffinland still had many steps to take before they could start building a railway across Baffin Island. They needed to apply for a Certificate of Fitness, which would require Baffinland to declare who would insure the railway. They would have to provide the CTA with the three most recent years of audited financial statements from the railway company in question. The CTA also demanded that Baffinland produce a detailed explanation of the risks of each work of construction that is part of the railroad project.
On the subject of the caribou, the CTA demanded that Baffinland give a more detailed and precise explanation of how the proposed “working group” (composed of members from QIA, EC and GN wildlife biologists) would operate. The CTA felt that Baffinland was not very clear about this in the FEIS. The CTA also noted that QIA was not pleased with Baffinland’s original caribou monitoring plan, and wants to make sure Baffinland will work with Inuit to design caribou crossings as promised.
Finally, the CTA was not too pleased with Baffinland’s emergency rescue plan, claiming it “was short on tangible details for emergency response.” They also wanted to see Arcelor-Mittal’s railway experience, which was supposed to be in the FEIS but Baffinland left it out.
What was Baffinland’s response to this last point? That the “Railway management plan and emergency response plan are mainly conceptual at this stage.”
Does this seem like an adequate response? The CTA is looking for something more than conceptual. From these criticisms from the CTA, it is clear Baffinland still has a long way to go before their proposed railway is accepted.
To your left under "attached files" is the CTA document from where this information came from.
