Decision No. 680-R-2002

December 19, 2002

APPLICATION by the Ministry of Transportation of the Province Ministry of Transportation of the Province pursuant to section 32 of the Canada Transportation Act, S.C., 1996, c. 10, to vary Order No. 83451 of the Board of Transport Commissioners for Canada dated April 1, 1954 to reflect a change in road authority and the associated cost apportionment responsibilities at the road crossing at Bovaird Drive (formerly Highway No. 7) and mileage 9.4 of the Canadian Pacific Railway Company's Owen Sound Subdivision (formerly Orangeville Subdivision), in the city of Brampton, in the province of Ontario.

File No. R8050/182-009.43

On July 29, 2002, the Ministry of Transportation of the Province of Ontario (hereinafter the applicant) has advised the Canadian Transportation Agency (hereinafter the Agency) that it is no longer the road authority at the crossing.

The applicant submitted a copy of provincial Order-in-Council No. 2505/2001 dated November 28, 2001 which transferred responsibility for the subject crossing to the Regional Municipality of Peel.

In a letter dated September 18, 2002, the Regional Municipality of Peel stated that it is now the road authority at this crossing.

In its letter dated November 5, 2002, the Canadian Pacific Railway Company informed the Agency that it had sold its Owen Sound Subdivision north of mileage 2.4 and that it is now under provincial jurisdiction. The subject trackage is owned by the Orangeville Brampton Railway Company.

By letter dated December 5, 2002, Cando Contracting Ltd., the company representing the Orangeville Brampton Railway Company, stated that it acknowledges the transfer of authority to the Regional Municipality of Peel.

The Orangeville Brampton Railway Company is a "shortline" railway company operating within, and subject to, the jurisdiction of the Province of Ontario. However, pursuant to section 157.1 of the Canada Transportation Act (hereinafter the CTA), the Minister of Transport may enter into an agreement with a provincial minister responsible for transportation matters providing for the administration, in relation to persons who operate railways within the legislative authority of the province, of any law respecting railway safety, accident investigation and railway crossings. Such an agreement was concluded between the Province and the Minister of Transport on July 8, 1996, wherein the Province authorized the Agency to administer the applicable federal law respecting road crossings to railway companies governed by the Shortline Railways Act, 1995, S.O., 1995, c. 2, in the same manner and to the same extent as the law applies to railway companies under federal jurisdiction.

Pursuant to section 32 of the CTA, the Agency may review, rescind or vary any decision or order made by it or may re-hear any application before it if, in the opinion of the Agency, since the decision or order or hearing of the application, there has been a change in the facts or circumstances pertaining to the decision, order or hearing.

In this case, the Agency has determined that there has been a change in the facts or circumstances and that Order No. 83451 should be varied.

Accordingly, pursuant to section 32 of the CTA, Order No. 83451 dated April 1, 1954 is hereby varied by:

1. deleting clause 1 and replacing it with "The Orangeville and Brampton Railway Company shall maintain two flashing light signals and one bell at the crossing of its railway and Highway No. 7, about two miles north of the Town of Brampton, in the Province of Ontario, mileage 9.4 Orangeville Subdivision."
2. deleting, in clause 3, "the Department of Highways of the Province of Ontario" and replacing it with "the Regional Municipality of Peel" and deleting "the Canadian Pacific Railway Company" and replacing it with "the Orangeville Brampton Railway Company."