News release

This week, the Transportation Safety Board of Canada’s (TSB) annual report for fiscal year 2022-23 was tabled in Parliament. It includes key annual statistics on occurrences in the air, marine, pipeline, and rail modes of transportation under federal jurisdiction.

“This year we focused on completing many of our long-running investigations, some of which have highlighted significant safety issues present in Canada’s transportation system,” said TSB Chair Kathy Fox. “Additionally, last fall we released the most recent edition of the TSB Watchlist, putting the spotlight on key safety issues and actions that need to be addressed to make Canada’s transportation system even safer.”

The year in results

• The TSB began 50 new investigations and completed 59 investigations – 20 more than the previous fiscal year – across all four transportation sectors (air, marine, pipeline, and rail).
• Limited-scope Class 4 investigations accounted for 41% of the total investigations completed during the reporting year.
• TSB investigators deployed 69 times to occurrence sites to collect data and carry out analysis in order to identify what happened and why, and to highlight known and emerging safety issues.
• There were 5% more fatalities (107) across all transportation sectors in 2022 than in 2021 (102). However, the 2022 total represents a 16% decrease in fatalities from the 10-year average of 128.
• The TSB completed eight technical reports for foreign investigation agencies.
• The TSB received a total of 188 confidential SECURITAS reports of incidents and potentially unsafe acts or conditions across the modes of transportation. All but two SECURITAS reports were closed by the end of the year.

Major investigations and safety communications

In May 2022, the TSB released investigation report M20A0160 into the 2020 fatal sinking of the small fishing vessel Sarah Anne, off the coast of Newfoundland. The investigation prompted a recommendation to Fisheries and Oceans Canada to require that any Canadian vessel that is used to commercially harvest marine resources have a current and accurate Transport Canada registration.

In August, the TSB released report R19W0002 into a 2019 collision between two freight trains near Portage la Prairie, Manitoba, including two recommendations to Transport Canada, one of which builds on outstanding recommendations going back more than two decades. This accident highlights major issues in the rail industry and reinforces TSB’s call for physical fail-safe train controls.

In March 2023, the TSB released report A21W0089 into the fatal 2021 collision with terrain of a private aircraft near Lacombe, Alberta, including a recommendation to Transport Canada to routinely review and update the Handbook for Civil Aviation Medical Examiners to ensure it contains the most effective screening tools for assessing medical conditions, including cardiovascular disease.

In the same month, the TSB also released report M21P0030 into the fatal sinking of the tug Ingenika, in which four recommendations were released. The first two recommendations were addressed to Transport Canada to improve and expand regulatory surveillance of tugs 15 gross tonnage or less. The other two recommendations were to the Pacific Pilotage Authority to address gaps in the issuance of pilotage waivers.

The TSB also issued 28 new safety communications, mainly directed to regulatory agencies and industry stakeholders. As well, the Board assessed the responses to 62 active recommendations to determine what progress is being made.

The TSB Annual Report for 2022-23 is available on the TSB website and includes the list of all investigation reports released during the year with examples of safety actions taken.