St. John New Brunswick - NB Southern Railway, facing 24 charges related to the transportation of oil, will be back in court 4 Jul 2018 to set a trial date.
 
A date was supposed to be set Monday, but the company's lawyer, Catherine Lahey, and prosecutor Guylaine Basque made a joint submission for an adjournment.
 
Basque told the court there were substantial issues that needed to be addressed.
 
NB Southern, a subsidiary of J.D. Irving Ltd., pleaded not guilty to all charges on 6 Apr 2018.
 
In an interview with CBC News on that date, federal prosecutor Denis Lavoie said the charges stem from a Transport Canada investigation triggered by the 2013 derailment that killed 47 people in Lake Megantic.
 
"There was an investigation that started in Lake Megantic in relation to what was contained in the railcars that exploded in Lake Megantic," said Lavoie.
 
"That brought Transport Canada to do further investigation in Saint John, New Brunswick."
 
Eight Month Timeline
 
Twelve of the charges under the Transportation of Dangerous Goods Act relate to failing to create proper shipping documents for the purpose of transporting petroleum crude oil.
 
The other 12 charges relate to having unqualified personnel "offer for transport dangerous goods for their transportation... to wit, petroleum crude oil," according to the informant, Transport Canada Inspector Marc Grignon.
 
The alleged offences occurred between 3 Nov 2012, and 5 Jul 2013, the day before the derailment.
 
During those eight months, about 14,000 cars of crude oil were transported for Irving Oil, according to the Public Prosecution Service of Canada.
 
On 26 Oct 2017 Irving Oil was was ordered to pay $4 million after pleading guilty to 34 offences under the Transportation of Dangerous Goods Act.
 
About $3.6 million of that money was directed to research programs in the field of safety standards.
 
Another $400,000 was paid in fines.
 
In addition, Irving Oil was ordered to submit a corrective measures plan with Transport Canada.
 
In the NB Southern case, the court was advised of some 9,000 documents of disclosure and that the crown would take about three weeks to argue its case.
 
Rachel Cave.