Report on rail crossing fees 'thin gruel' for Cape Breton landowners

A group of property owners in Cape Breton is unimpressed with a new report on the railway crossing fees being charged by the Cape Breton and Central Nova Scotia Railway.

The Nova Scotia government paid consultant Neil MacNeil $15,000 to study the fees charged by the railway's owner, Genesee & Wyoming Inc., and to consider options to help address the property owners' concerns.

The resulting six-page report is "very thin gruel," according to Ken Jardine, past chair of the Cape Breton Railway Victims Association.

"I hope that they didn't spend our good tax dollars on something that between [current association chair Mike Johnson] and I, over the past several years, 90 per cent of it we gave it to them already.

"This was just a regurgitation of information that's already on the record."

Costly power lines

Property owners along Highway 223 who need to cross over the railway lines to access their land pay an annual fee of $300 to the rail company.

Of greater concern to some property owners is the cost to install new power lines across the railway line, which Nova Scotia Power estimates at $16,300, according to the report. 

That charge includes the cost of getting approval from Genesee & Wyoming and NSP's engineering assessment, which is required by the Canadian Electrical Code for all railway crossings.

The Railway Victims Association argues the $300 annual fee is the only fee approved by the Nova Scotia Utility and Review Board, and should cover all crossings, including utilities.

Economies of scale

The report outlines some options for property owners who believe the fees are too high.

"With regard to installing new power lines … staff at Nova Scotia Power stressed their desire and willingness to assist in coming up with innovative solutions," wrote MacNeil in the report.

"For example, NSP would like to actively pursue potential economy-of-scale solutions, such as building a power line across a railway once and then extending the line on the other side in order to serve multiple customers."

That's a new idea worth pursuing, Mike Johnson, the current chair of the Railway Victims Association, in an email.

"We have tried many times to meet with NSP to no avail," he said. "Would love to hear what they have to say."

Johnson is less enthusiastic about the other options outlined in the report — that property owners could make a request to the Department of Transportation to amend the regulations under the Railways Act, or file a complaint with the Nova Scotia Utility and Review Board.

"Ken Jardine and I have been asking [former transportation minister] Geoff MacLellan to intervene or amend the regulations for five years, and Ken, with previous governments, for another six," said Johnson.

But in the meantime, the leadership of the Railway Victims Association says it is feeling abandoned by the Liberal government.

"I guess I can sort of understand that, if they are not getting what they feel is the result that would best suit them," said current Transportation Minister Lloyd Hines.

"But … the government has made a commitment to preserve the integrity of this important rail line in Cape Breton. And all we're interested in doing in terms of our role as a department is to make sure that the facts are exposed and there isn't any misunderstanding about what the imperatives are."