MONTREAL—The blame for this summer’s deadly train disaster in Lac-Mégantic, Que., lies ultimately with the federal government for having set a pro-business, anti-regulation agenda that is willing to sacrifice safety for economic growth, says a new study.

The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, a left-leaning think tank, lays out a host of factors that may have contributed to the derailment of a train carrying highly flammable shale gas on July 6, 2013. The accident killed 47 people in the series of explosions and fires that burned for more than two days.

According to the report, the factors contributing to the accident included an inadequate number of federal rail inspectors, a massive increase in crude oil shipments by rail, a carrier — Montreal, Maine and Atlantic — with a poor safety record and a penchant for cutting costs, and a powerful railroad lobby with a history of pushing back against safety rules that would add to business costs.

“In my view, the evidence points to a fundamentally flawed regulatory system, cost-cutting corporate behaviour that jeopardized public safety and the environment, and responsibility extending to the highest levels of corporate management and government policy making,” writes author Bruce Campbell, the centre’s executive director.

But no one should expect the railroad to act in the best interests of anyone but its shareholders, and so ultimate responsibility falls instead Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s Conservative government, the report says.

It was Ottawa, Campbell writes, that gave MMA special permissions to operate with a single engineer instead of the two-person standard, and that failed to increase the number of inspectors as shipments by rail of oil skyrocketed over the last five years.

In a recent interview with the Star, MMA chairman Ed Burkhardt reiterated his confidence in the ability of one-person crews to operate safely and said an internal probe of the accident continues to suggest that the train’s engineer who left the train shortly before the Lac-Mégantic accident occurred failed to apply a sufficient number of handbrakes to prevent the tankers from being set into motion while unattended.

Campbell writes that while the lawsuits, criminal probes and investigations by transportation safety authorities are focused on what the rail carrier did or did not do on that infamous day, “it is naive to expect corporations to self-regulate in a way that would compromise their bottom line.”

“Was MM&A a rogue company? Until new evidence comes to light, it seems MM&A, an admittedly poor performer compared to other companies, simply took advantage of the freedom it was granted by the regulatory system.”

This week, Quebec’s environment ministry updated figures about oil spillage that resulted from the disaster. While the ministry originally reported that the train was carrying 7.2 million litres of crude oil, the actual amount was closer to 7.68.

How much of that oil burned in the explosion, seeped into the soil, or contaminated the lake and nearby river also increased from 5.6 million litres to 5.98 million.

With files from Wendy Gillis

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