In light of the current challenges arising from the COVID-19 pandemic, Transport Canada has decided to ease the restrictions that apply to the transportation of dangerous goods retraining dates and containment inspections.
Benoit Turcotte, the Director General – Transportation of Dangerous Goods Directorate, said “Many registered Means of Containment Facilities have temporarily closed or are limiting travel for their employees who perform mobile inspections.” He also authorized the transportation of dangerous goods that don’t meet all the testing and inspection requirements for the standardized means of containment identified by Part 5 of the TDG regulations.
Some of the additional terms and conditions that must still be met include:
- The dangerous goods cannot be handled, offered for transport, transported, or imported by rail tank cars;
- The expired inspection and test markings must remain visibly and legibly printed on the means of containment and have been valid on Feb. 29, 2020;
- There are no other non-compliances or safety defects with the means of containment;
- The means of containment must be inspected and tested at the first available opportunity once inspection and test facilities resume operations; and
- The means of containment cannot be subject to any notice of defective construction or recall, or any notice of defective repair or defective testing as per Section 9 of the TDG Act.
The certificate will be in effect as of March 27, 2020 and will remain in effect until September 30, 2020 unless the Transport Minister cancels it in writing.
TDG training, containment inspection requirements, temporarily eased
