The Government of Canada is taking concrete action to strengthen our national supply chains andcontinue to build an economy that works for everyone. Canada’s freight rail system is a key component of our supply chains, moving more than 332 million tonnes of Canadian goods to market, and into Canadians’ homes, each year.
Today, the Minister of Transport, the Honourable Omar Alghabra, announced amendments to the Transportation Information Regulations to increase supply chain transparency and create a better understanding of the performance of Canada’s freight rail sector for the benefit of all rail users.
These amendments aim to strengthen the accountability of freight rail service providers, by requiring major railways to provide Transport Canada with enhanced service and performance information. This information will significantly enhance the value of the information being collected and it will be published weekly on the Government of Canada’s Transportation Data and Information Hub to provide Canadians with a better picture of end-to-end freight rail performance.
Major railways will also provide Transport Canada with additional data to support targeted public policy and other regulatory purposes, including waybill information (such as origin, destination, weight) and traffic data (such as number of carloads, goods, and car types).
These changes will come into force on April 4, 2023, and will significantly expand upon the service and performance data currently collected following the implementation of the Transportation Modernization Act of 2018.
The amendments to the Transportation Information Regulations are an important part of the Government of Canada’s response to the issues raised in the National Supply Chain Task Force’s Final Report.