OTTAWA – Canada’s railways last year recorded their first operating loss in three years, Statistics Canada has reported.
The federal agency said that in 1995, the seven railway companies surveyed had a combined operating loss of $156 million, compared to profits of $803 million in 1994.
Much of the reversal came because CN and CP claimed large one-time costs of laying off employees and writing off assets.
However, operating costs also were increasing as revenues were falling.
Statistics Canada last week cited “a softer economy, a rail strike, severe weather conditions in Western Canada and lower grain rates because of changes to the Western Grain Transportation Act” as additional reasons for the losses.
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It noted that grain shipments by rail dropped almost 20 percent to 31 million tonnes in 1995, reducing freight revenue.
Goodale discloses assets
Federal agriculture minister Ralph Goodale has made his annual disclosure of assets to the federal ethics counsellor, but the declaration tells the public little about what the minister owns.
As in other years, he declared that he owns two lots of land in Comal County, Texas.
Beyond that, he joined all other ministers in filing other personal financial information in a confidential report.
Each year, ministers must report to ethics counsellor Howard Wilson on their holdings, allowing him to judge whether any conflict of interest exists.
New commissioner
The federal auditor general has reached into the ranks of the Alberta oil and gas industry to hire the first commissioner of the environment and sustainable development.
Brian Emmett, a former Environment Canada bureaucrat hired last year to be managing director of the Propane Gas Association in Calgary, returns to Ottawa in late July.
He will prepare annual reports on how well federal departments are implementing the federal Green Plan and sustainable development goals.
It will be the first time the auditor general’s office assesses environmental as well as financial accountability in government.
Tory election fighters
Federal Progressive Conservative leader Jean Charest has named a Saskatchewan senator as one of two senators heading up the party’s election fight, expected next year.
Dave Tkachuk of Saskatoon joins Quebec senator Pierre Claude Nolin as election co-chair.
Tkachuk has some experience helping resurrect moribund political parties.
In the mid-1970s, he was a key player in the successful drive to rebuild the Saskatchewan Progressive Conservative Party.
