Provincially Regulated
Provincially Regulated Employees in Ontario
Applicable to Employees working at Alstom
Provincially regulated employees (Ontario) fall under the purview of the Employment Standards Act, Occupational Health and Safety Act, Labour Relations Act and the Ontario Human Rights Code in respect to Collective Bargaining, Health and Safety standards, Labour Standards & Human Rights violations.
Unlike federally regulated employers working under the Railway Safety Act, in Ontario, there are 3 provincial acts related to railways.
Useful Links:
The Shortline Railways Act:
A shortline railway is defined as ” railway within legislative jurisdiction of the Province of Ontario, but does not include urban rail transit systems or industrial railways”
The Metrolinx Act:
Created in 2006 to enable Metrolinx, an agency of the Ontario Government, to improve, coordinate and integrate transportation in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton area in conjunction with the Ontario Ministry of Transportation. It is mostly economic in nature, prescribing agency corporate structures but not language regarding safety requirements.
The Ontario Northland Transportation Commission Act:
Created in 1990 to assist the Ontario Northland Transportation Commission (ONTC) in the establishment and operation of rail transportation and telecommunications in Northern Ontario.
For Metrolinx, Transport Canada has an inspection-services agreement with the Province of Ontario’s Ministry of Transportation in respect to regulatory oversight.
ONTC conducts its own internal track inspections and hires third-party inspectors for some other inspections.
For provincial shortline railways, Transport Canada conducts inspections in accordance with an inspection-services agreement between the Province of Ontario’s Ministry of Transportaion, separate from the inspection-services agreement for Metrolinx.
Alstom Transportation, voluntarily complies with Federal Rail legislation and regulations, including fitness for duty standards under the Railway Safety Act.