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 a

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 actual

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 yea

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 submit

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

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 c

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 m

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 Amer

Agriculture committee  Mr. Chair, with your permission, may I request a clarification? In terms of your first question, Mr. Eyking, you said a cost review for the system. Are you referring to the transportation system? Could you clarify that?

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 int

Agriculture committee  I would make a couple of points. With respect to the order in council, the legislation actually does two things specifically that are connected to the order in council that was issued. First of all, it extends the million tonnes per week requirement from the automatic expiry date

Agriculture committee  The MRE is actually set through a fairly complex formula, which is in the legislation but is actually set on an annual basis by the Canadian Transportation Agency. The purpose of the MRE is to manage, to limit, the amount of revenue that a railway can make per tonne, per amount

Agriculture committee  I should probably clarify that the assessment of the MRE's impact, not surprisingly, varies depending on whether you speak to shippers or railways.

Agriculture committee  This is probably one of the reasons that, given the complexity of the formula and the divergence of views, a more careful look at the issue through a consultative process is appropriate.