Natural Resources committee  I would agree. We're not supporting re-regulation of rates. What we are supporting is more options for shippers to challenge poor rates and poor service. We would support the long-term structural solution, which is actually introducing competition into the system, which would bri

Natural Resources committee  Mr. Chair, I think the points that have been raised are very good ones. Obviously it's the efficiency and the effectiveness of the overall transportation system that, at the end of the day, is really the bedrock of our success as a trading nation. There are issues in other parts

Natural Resources committee  We don't have that information right now. That's because there is a lot of competition in the trucking industry. It is not an industry which is subject to political or legislative influence, or one in which companies feel the need to band together to pursue common objectives. We

Natural Resources committee  No, that's true, once in a while we do look at regulatory issues to ensure that the trucking system is efficient and as cost-effective as possible, but for now, we don't have any recommendations to make which could be useful to us. Really, the problems we are dealing with mostly

Natural Resources committee  I would simply like to make a clarification. The amount of $280 million, which represents about 13% of our total costs, is what we pay above and beyond what we should be paying because the railway companies have a monopoly. I cannot do the math right here, but I know that the tot

Natural Resources committee  That's correct. Companies which produce grains have the same problem. A study was made public last week, and it estimated that these companies pay $175 million more than they should because of the lack of competition.

Natural Resources committee  Well, I think the other thing that's going on with CN, the railways, is that their business model is to try to optimize their core routes. So for them it's all about making the maximum dollar of revenue by keeping their core system as efficient as possible. So where you have prob

Natural Resources committee  I would like to hear their answer to that question as well. From our perspective, I think there are two things going on here. One is that it's just classic monopoly behaviour, which is that if you can restrict supply, you can drive up prices, and it's monopoly 101. I think we'v

Natural Resources committee  FPAC has long been an advocate of running rights as a more fundamental structural solution to the lack of competition in the industry. Running rights would allow one railway to run over the line of another railway at rates for that portion of the trip that would be set by the Can

Natural Resources committee  I would agree. One of the things that's happened over the last few years is that as fuel costs have gone up trucking has become an even less viable option for exactly the reasons the other witnesses have mentioned. While it is clear that rail is an environmentally preferable alt

Natural Resources committee  It's my understanding that the federal government has been working with B.C. under the infrastructure program and it has made funding under the infrastructure program available for improvement on short-line railways in partnership with provinces. They've been working quite acti

Natural Resources committee  We hope that the government will be beginning the review as soon as possible. We believe that an in-depth, detailed review, which contains conclusions, should take between six months and one year to complete, but no more.

Natural Resources committee  From the time the review begins.

Natural Resources committee  We have worked very closely with the other associations representing shippers, who have the same interests we do, and with whom we have worked together on Bill C-8. We are working with these associations to provide our collective input to the government. I could ask our partners

Natural Resources committee  I can say two things to that in response, Mr. Chair. One is that I think the industry now needs to take advantage of some of the provisions that were recently enacted in Bill C-8, which should make it more effective for industry to raise complaints with the Canadian Transportati