The Canadian government has unveiled new legislation it says will address concerns mayors have raised since the 2013 railway disaster in in Lac-Mégantic, Quebec. The proposed legislation came the same week that North America saw two fiery accidents involving the transport of oil by rail.

On February 16, a train carrying Bakken crude oil derailed and exploded outside of a small town in West Virginia. One day earlier, a CN Rail train loaded with Alberta heavy crude jumped its tracks and caught fire in northern Ontario.

Later that week, on February 20, Canada’s minister of transport, Lisa Raitt, announced she was proposing amendments to the Canada Transportation Act and the Railway Safety Act.

According to a government news release, the new Safe and Accountable Rail Act will create a regulatory regime based on the “polluter pays” principle, which holds railways and shippers financially responsible for any damage caused by an accident.

“Changes include a new liability and compensation regime for federally regulated railways, including minimum insurance requirements; a compensation fund financed by levies on crude oil shippers; increased information-sharing provisions; and stronger oversight powers for the Minister and Transport Canada inspectors,” the government’s release states.

Specifically, the new legislation would give Transport Canada the authority to require a company take corrective measures if it is found to be operating in a manner that compromises safety. It would also require railway companies to maintain minimum levels of insurance dictated by the government. And it would see operators pay levies per tonne of crude oil that their trains carry into a “supplementary fund” to be used to pay for damages that exceed an operator’s minimum insurance level in the event of an accident.

The new rules are largely the result of recommendations included in a November 2013 report on rail safety that was authored by the auditor general of Canada.

The legislation also includes provisions that would require railway operators to share more information with the municipalities through which their trains pass.

In July 2014, the Georgia Straight published a cover story in which a number of Lower Mainland mayors said they wanted more advance knowledge about what hazardous materials trains carry through their cities.

The federal government has worked to enhance laws pertaining to rail safety since the July 6, 2013, catastrophe in Lac-Mégantic. On that night, a train carrying Bakken crude oil accidentally rolled into town and exploded, leaving 47 people dead.

The legislation proposed on February 20 comes as British Columbia experiences a dramatic increase in the volume of oil transported through the province via rail.

In January 2015, the Straight reported that the number of trains carrying oil through B.C. hit an all-time high the previous year.

In 2009, six railcars transported 251 tonnes of crude petroleum through the province. According to numbers supplied by Transport Canada, in 2014, more than 4,100 cars carrying roughly 333,500 tonnes of crude oil moved through B.C. (Figures for 2014 are projections based on detailed statistics covering the first nine months of the year.)