Communiqué

Today marks the end of a successful two-day Transportation Safety Summit (Summit) led by the Transportation Safety Board of Canada (TSB). The Summit brought together a broad cross-section of senior Canadian transportation executives from government, and from the marine, pipeline, rail and aviation industries, including some of their bargaining agents.

“We assembled a dynamic group of industry leaders and employee representatives who are committed to making safety a priority. I expect the fruitful discussions we have had over the past two days will continue within the organizations represented here,” said TSB Chair Kathy Fox. “This was a unique experience having leaders from different transportation sectors share their safety best practices and lessons learned. These offerings/contributions led to the cross-pollination of ideas that transcended across the modes.”

Strengthening organizational safety culture and safety management were overarching themes at the Summit. Senior officials were invited to discuss ways to improve the flow of safety information; to capture and use data proactively for safety; and to discuss the potential that wider use of voice and video recordings could offer for cultivating a more robust safety culture.

“Traditional approaches to safety management based primarily on compliance with regulations, reactive responses following accidents, and a ‘blame and punish’ philosophy have been insufficient in reducing accident rates,” added Chair Fox. “We hope this Summit armed participants with practical ideas and solutions that they can implement in their organizations to improve sharing of safety data and help mitigate risks.”

A report on the Summit discussions will be published in the coming weeks so that the outcomes can be shared across the entire transportation industry.