During the meeting, Scheffel said CN has one dangerous goods officer based in Surrey, and another based in Edmonton. In addition, a CN police officer is based in Prince George and another is based in Prince Rupert.

鈥淚n the event of an accident, they鈥檇 figure out if it is faster to fly or drive there; we get the closest resource that we have there as fast as possible.鈥�

Repen said this response strategy isn鈥檛 enough for the region.

鈥淵ou mentioned you have one officer in Surrey, one officer in Edmonton and then a couple of police officers for this entire region,鈥� he said. 鈥淲e appreciate everything that CN does for the region, but we feel that CN needs to step up and take a much stronger initiative here in the regional district to protect our resources.鈥�

Smithers councillor Gladys Atrill said CN鈥檚 one-to-six-hours response time is concerning. When talking about an environmental response, she said, six hours is a long time.

鈥淭hat didn鈥檛 provide much comfort at all; it鈥檚 actually quite frightening to think about the fact that there鈥檚 lots of stuff moving down the [Bulkley] river corridor,鈥� said Atrill.

Bill Miller, RDBN chair, added that if a train derailment took place in downtown Surrey, there would be major losses in infrastructure, but if a train derailment took place next to a river in Northern B.C., this would have long-term effects in a number of communities.

鈥淭hat鈥檚 an important message to carry out to CN officials,鈥� said Miller. 鈥淲e don鈥檛 have the population base, but we do have the resources.鈥�

Scheffel responded by saying CN takes a 鈥渢eam approach.鈥� In the event of a derailment, CN would work in conjunction with organizations such as Emergency Management B.C. and the Ministry of Environment.

鈥淚t鈥檚 a shared effort,鈥� said Scheffel.

However, some directors were not convinced that this approach would be effective in the event of an emergency.

鈥淚 have a sense that we are all relying on a team approach, but I am not sure that we have all the pieces in that team,鈥� said Atrill, adding that CN needs to make sure communities have adequate equipment and teams in place to deal with emergencies.

亚洲天堂 Lake Mayor Luke Strimbold suggested that CN could work in partnership with organizations that already have spill response equipment such as Cheslatta Carrier Nation.

Scheffel said he would be happy to connect CN鈥檚 dangerous goods officers with such organizations.

Vanderhoof Mayor Gerry Thiessen urged Scheffel to share the regional district鈥檚 message with CN officials.

鈥淗aving one dangerous goods officer in Surrey or Edmonton just isn鈥檛 good enough for us,鈥� said Thiessen. 鈥淐ommunication needs to be so much quicker with our communities so that there鈥檚 some confidence in our relationship with CN.鈥�

Board of directors raise issue of delays on Via Rail passenger trains

During the board meeting of the Regional District of Bulkley-Nechako, Mark Fisher, Director of Electoral Area A (Smithers Rural), raised the issue of delays on Via Rail passenger trains.

Via Rail trains along the Prince George to Prince Rupert corridor are commonly a few hours late. The reason is that they have to wait for CN freight trains due to limited tracks.

Emile Scheffel, B.C. Regional Lead of Community Affairs for the Canadian National Railway Company (CN), said this is a 鈥渢ough issue to solve.鈥�

鈥淎t the same time that we have people trying to get from point 鈥榓鈥� to point 鈥榖鈥� on Via Rail, we also have [industrial] customers in Prince Rupert and elsewhere that expect on-time service for their product,鈥� he explained.

Fisher said CN needs to recognize that Via Rail passengers are just as important as the goods that CN is transporting.

鈥淚t鈥檚 something that can be done,鈥� said Fisher. 鈥淩ecognizing that the people have the right to move.鈥�

Smithers councillor Gladys Atrill said the constant delays of passenger trains are a 鈥渉uge detriment鈥� to the region.

鈥淪ometimes just a little desire to assist the passenger movement would go a long way,鈥� she said. 鈥淧eople sit [on the train] for a long time; a train that should take five or six hours, sometimes takes 10 or 12.鈥�

According to Scheffel, CN won鈥檛 be addressing this issue any time soon.

鈥淲e are running on average a dozen to 15 trains a day, so it鈥檚 a challenging one,鈥� he said. 鈥淪o I can鈥檛 promise that anything is going to change in that respect any time soon.鈥�

Myl猫ne B茅langer, a spokesperson for Via Rail, said Via Rail must operate under the current infrastructure system in which they do not own the right of way.

鈥淭his limits our control over our reliability,鈥� she said. 鈥淣onetheless, we are in constant communication with our partners of the industry to improve our performance.鈥�

亚洲天堂 Lake mayor suggests rail safety campaign

While speaking to a representative of the Canadian National Railway Company (CN) last week, 亚洲天堂 Lake Mayor Luke Strimbold suggested a regional rail safety campaign.

Strimbold mentioned a recent incident where a 19-year-old man was hit by a freight train in Decker Lake.

Kate Fenske, a spokesperson for CN, said that in the Decker Lake incident, CN immediately notified the local first responders and provided support鈥� as needed.

Emile Scheffel, B.C. Regional Lead of Community Affairs for CN, said CN would like to provide local governments all the resources they can to help with rail safety education.

鈥淚鈥檇 be happy to work directly with you to help set that up,鈥� said Scheffel.