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Federal Transport Minister Promises Cash for Surveillance Equipment and Training By Linda Gyulia 10/ |
Surveillance cameras and a
global positioning system are among the security measures that the
Montreal Transit Corp. is seeking to add to the metro to help keep people safe.
The Montreal Transit Corp. wants to equip its fleet of 1,500 buses with
surveillance cameras and a
global positioning system with federal money that could be available by the end of the year to beef up security in this country's mass-transit systems.
The
surveillance cameras and tracking system are just two of the bus and metro safety measures — worth $130 million — proposed by the Montreal transit authority to Federal Transport Minister Jean Lapierre in the wake of the global terror threat, MTC chairperson Claude Dauphin said in an interview yesterday.
In the wake of this summer's terrorist attacks on the transit system in London, Lapierre asked transit agencies in Canada to submit requests for the funding they would need to make their systems less vulnerable to a terrorist attack.
Lapierre said yesterday he wants to launch a new federal funding program to assist transit authorities to buy equipment like
surveillance cameras, train employees and
conduct simulations to test preparedness.
"I'm ready to go before cabinet and make a proposition to my colleagues," Lapierre said on a visit to his Outremont riding where he toured a new public library and community centre on Cote des Neiges Rd. that was built with federal, provincial and municipal funds.
"I want to be in a situation to act swiftly ... because the events in London don't give us any room to manoeuvre. I mean, the danger is real and you have to be smarter about it," he said.
Lapierre said he has met with the transit authorities and security experts who say there's a lot of work to be done.
"The transit authorities don't have it (the money), so I'll take it upon myself to convince my colleagues in cabinet they need major contributions fast if we want to have real security," he said.
Better security in transit systems would help fight crime, not just terrorism, he added. He said there's no price tag yet.
The $130 million in measures the MTC presented to Lapierre includes $30 million for the metro system, Dauphin said.
That includes:
- Installing 800 additional
high-quality digital surveillance cameras in the tunnels of the metro system and its 65 metro stations.
- Upgrading the often-inaudible public-announcement system in the metro, at $7 million.
- Posting pictograms in metro stations — signs without words that use arrows and pictures to give directions, so all people can understand them. The price was not available yesterday.
- Installing digital boards on the platform level to provide constantly updated information for hearing-impaired passengers.
The agency is currently installing 1,200
surveillance cameras in the metro system under a renovation program funded by the federal and provincial governments, the Metropolitan Transit Agency and the MTC. They will be installed by next spring, along with motion sensors, Dauphin said.
Source: canada.com
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