The forest products industry has a great dependence on our transportation system in Canada. As you can just imagine most of the mills are located in northern and remote communities. Most of those communities only have one way in and one way out. Our product is a heavy, large, bulk commodity. Trucks are a possibility, but rail is a much more economical way to move our product.
We're very interested in Mr. Emerson's committee and the work he's doing. Catherine has led our transportation team in the work they've been doing. I'm going to give her an opportunity to answer some of your specific questions, but the main point to be made with respect to transportation is that about one-third of the costs of getting our product made and to our customers is consumed by transportation costs. So it's a huge component of the forest products industry. As you are from Saskatchewan you would know with potash and with all of our natural resources, getting our product from the heart of the continent to tide waters and to our customers is a challenge that's going to be with us for a long time by virtue of our geography.
Catherine can give you some specifics on what we're asking for from Mr. Emerson.