CP Rail Vegetation Management Program

06/23/2020

The Public Safety Division of the Mohawk Council of Kahnawà:ke wishes to advise the community that CP Rail is authorized to conduct Vegetation Control measures to ensure safe operations of the trains.

CP must follow Transport Canada’s Rules Respecting Track Safety and needs to spray the track to control vegetation.  Vegetation control products will only be applied to track ballast, which is 16-feet wide. All products used by CP have been approved by the Health Canada Pest Management Regulatory Agency.

The spraying is scheduled to take place on Wednesday June 24, 2020.  If the weather conditions do not permit spraying on this day, the work will be completed on either June 25 or June 26. 

Spraying will take place first thing in the morning and the whole process will take approximately 20 minutes.  The spraying will only occur once in 2020.

“Over the years we have explored every conceivable option other than spraying,” said Public Safety Portfolio Lead Frankie McComber. “Community members have expressed their concerns in the past, so we have made every effort to ensure the procedure is conducted in the safest manner possible. CP uses a skirt that reaches the ground to keep the spray entirely within the targeted roadbed, and no spraying ever takes place in breezy conditions.”

When asked to explain the procedures, CP Rail provided the ‘Answers to Frequently Asked Questions’ about CP’s Vegetation Management Program, which are available on the MCK Website.