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RRCA Requirements, Urban Planning, and Funding
The RRCA's requirements for the City are not onerous and most of the time-consuming work to meet them is already complete. Modifications to the West Harbour Secondary Plan and the Barton-Tiffany Urban Design Study can produce the urban development and transportation plans required.
In 2012, a group of citizens organized, independent of the City, to
create their own plans for redevelopment of the CN rail yard, which showed a wide variety of people-friendly uses including residential, entertainment, and parks.
A consultant can write a financial plan for relocating CN to the Stelco lands. With all the documents in place, Council can submit a full application to the Canadian Transportation Agency in 2015.
The RRCA requirements to issue an order are:
- A urban development plan
- A transportation plan (which can be part of the urban development plan)
- A financial plan that does not "impose on any railway company affected thereby any costs and losses greater than the benefits and payments receivable by the railway company under the plan, or confer on any railway company affected thereby any benefits and payments greater than the costs and losses incurred by the railway company under the plan"
The RRCA enables the federal government to fund cost of rail relocation up to 50 percent.
White Rock BC - First Use of RRCA Since 1987
The RRCA was used by the City of Regina in 1987 to relocate CN and CP rail yards, and
is presently being
used by White Rock in British Columbia to force the relocation of a coastal rail line that is
dangerous and frustrating public access to their waterfront.
(
The City's "Rail in White Rock" page outlines how disruptive the line has become to the city. This Global News report shows video of the interaction between pedestrians and the railway.)
The City hired
Mary-Jane Bennett of the Frontier Centre for Public Policy as a consultant to prepare their application. Bennett's
23-page report to the Council [PDF] outlines the requirements of the Act, costs of relocation in White Rock, and the timelines expected of the process.
White Rock is being closely watched and, if successful, could spur other communities to use the RRCA to force relocation of urban rail lines - especially as the transportation of hazardous goods is
a more prevalent concern after the
Lac-Mégantic rail disaster that killed 47 people.
/static/images/lac-megantic
raildisaster.jpg Lac-Megantic Rail Disaster (Image Credit: Sûreté du Québec/Wikipedia)
A search of the
CTA and CanLii databases finds no other cases. Bennett's report states this fact as well.
The Winnipeg RRCA Debate
Winnipeg is the intersection of Canada's railway networks and the lines divide the City. The following map of rail lines in Winnipeg was created by the
Winnipeg Free Press:
It costs the City of Winnipeg hundreds of millions of dollars in infrastructure to build bridges and underpasses to ensure traffic flows in the City.
With the recent boom in railway traffic, Winnipeg is looking at a $175-million underpass as its
top infrastructure priority.
With grade separation taking priority over other infrastructure needs, Winnipeggers are having a serious discussion of spending $1-billion (yes, billion) to use the RRCA to move cross-Canada rail traffic out of the urban area.
The idea is getting traction because it will save Winnipeg hundreds of millions in planned grade separate road work and create urban renewal opportunities across the City as rail lands are converted to other uses.
The Social Planning Council of Winnipeg
wrote an extensive report on moving the railways in 2014, but didn't get as much traction as the current discussion.
The current relocation discussion appears to have originated with Winnipeg business person
Art DeFehr who penned an open statement entitled
Rail Location in Winnipeg - Think Bold and Big.
It outlines the opportunities that rail relocation provides for Winnipeg. DeFehr's proposal received a
positive editorial from the
WFP editorial board.
Funding Relocation in Hamilton
The cost of relocating the Stuart Street CN yard is not insignificant, the timeline is likely to be nearly a decade between the RRCA hearing and relocation, and funding will require focused leadership at the local level.
Some of the costs will be recouped from eventual development of the West Harbour CN lands, and improved land values in the new Tiffany-Barton development area.
Hamilton City Council will need to secure a tripartite funding agreement with the provincial and federal government, will have to prioritize municipal funding within the City budget for many years, and have the patience to create a structure to lead the project over multiple Council terms.
Is there willpower on Council to act on relocating the Stuart Street CN yard? Or will there only be more empty declarations that this is a priority during this term of Council?
First published on The Public Record. Licenced under Creative Commons CC-BY-SA.
