Agriculture committee  No. There hasn't been a cost review for 20 years. There's nothing in the legislation providing for a cost review. As Minister Raitt noted, we will be accelerating the initiation of the Canada Transportation Act review. Minister Raitt will be considering what should be scoped into the mandate for that review.

Agriculture committee  I would just make two observations. I would note that the order in council that was issued on March 7 requires the movement of a million, or to ramp up to a million tonnes per year. That's not all to export; that's movement, so the movement to domestic clients and to North American clients south of the border counts as well.

Agriculture committee  The order in council took effect on March 7. It requires the railways to ramp up over a period of four weeks to one million tonnes per week. That equates to roughly 5,500 cars per railway, because as the minister has indicated, it's split half and half. The railways have submitted their required reporting for the first week and now into the second week of their obligations and they're exceeding their ramp-up, but they still have to reach one million.

Agriculture committee  I assume you're asking about the existing order in council.

Agriculture committee  For the purposes of the order in council, it's an order made under subsection 47(1) of the Canada Transportation Act, so the enforcement provisions are there in the legislation. What would be required would be for there to be evidence of a failure to meet the requirements under the order.

Agriculture committee  That would depend on the speed of the prosecution, frankly, and the speed of the court system. There are a number of legal steps that would have to be followed. What we're talking about is a fine upon conviction, not an administrative penalty. Needless to say, prosecution and conviction take longer than an administrative penalty would.

Agriculture committee  I'll provide perhaps a partial answer to the question because it starts to move a little into policy choices, and of course, those policy choices reside with ministers. What I will do is reiterate what the ministers have said here and have said publicly, which is that the one million tonne objective was, in their eyes, ambitious but reachable.

Transport committee  I wouldn't wish to speculate where 200,000 new passengers might come from. But with respect to the minister's observations and hopes around increased ridership, significant investment has been made by VIA in its rolling stock and in other capital areas over the last couple of years, and part of the objective of those investments is indeed to increase ridership.

Transport committee  Thank you for the question. Security issues come under Mr. McDonald's area of expertise. When it comes to the question of the Maghreb or of international air agreements with other areas, really what it comes down to is a couple of issues. One is whether or not there is actually a demonstrated need.

Transport committee  With respect to international air agreements and service to various centres, as I think most members of the committee know, Mr. Chair, we have been operating for the last six or seven years under the blue sky policy, which promotes liberalization of air services internationally and promotes the establishment of air agreements with other countries where there's clear demand, but always with the caveat that we want Canadian carriers to face a level playing field globally and to compete, but to compete under conditions that are fair.