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Fair Rail Freight Service Act
An Act to amend the Canada Transportation Act (administration, air and railway transportation and arbitration)
This bill was last introduced in the 41st Parliament, 1st Session, which ended in September 2013.
This bill was last introduced in the 41st Parliament, 1st Session, which ended in September 2013.
Denis Lebel Conservative
This bill has received Royal Assent and is now law.
This is from the published bill.
This enactment amends the Canada Transportation Act to require a railway company, on a shipper’s request, to make the shipper an offer to enter into a contract respecting the manner in which the railway company must fulfil its service obligations to the shipper. It also creates an arbitration process to establish the terms of such a contract if the shipper and the railway company are unable to agree on them. The enactment also amends provisions related to air transportation to streamline internal processes and certain administrative provisions of that Act.
All sorts of information on this bill is available at LEGISinfo, an excellent resource from the Library of Parliament. You can also read the full text of the bill.
Some hon. members
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The Deputy Speaker
Order, please. The member for Peace River is out of time.
Some hon. members
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The Deputy Speaker
Order, please. Questions and comments, the hon. member for Drummond.
Some hon. members
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The Deputy Speaker
Order, please. That is enough. We will not let this last hour degenerate. The hon. member for Drummond.
François Choquette NDP Drummond, QC
Mr. Speaker, despite the recent interruption, we have to deal with the serious issue of Bill C-52, all the same.
The bill does in fact respond to some of the concerns of shippers, as has already been mentioned. The members of the NDP are still standing, they are still awake, and they are still ready to debate all the bills that have an impact on Canadians and the people in my riding.
The thing that is important to remember in this bill is that, in committee, shippers and businesses made six fair and reasonable proposals that would lead to something that was equitable. Unfortunately, the Conservatives flatly rejected those proposals, despite the fact that these were recommendations made by experts, by people who know the field and its problems.
I do not understand why the Conservatives stubbornly insist on going in one single direction and on taking a purely ideological view of everything they do.
Chris Warkentin Conservative Peace River, AB
Mr. Speaker, the NDP members have a funny way of demonstrating their support. On one hand, they are supportive; on the other hand, they are not supportive. One of these days they will get it together. I am less interested in whether the NDP members are supporting it and more interested in whether the shippers are supportive of the bill.
We have support for the bill, not only from folks who live in my constituency, but from Pulse Canada, the Grain Growers of Canada, the Forest Products Association of Canada, the Western Barley Growers Association, the Chemistry Industry Association of Canada, the Western Grain Elevator Association, the Fertilizer Institute, the Canola Growers Association, and Western Canadian Wheat Growers. I could go on and on. I could go all night. Folks across this country are supportive of this legislation.
Nathan Cullen NDP Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC
Mr. Speaker, part of the reason my friend is going all night is that, once again, we have a government that has difficulty approaching the opposition to work collectively and co-operatively on legislation.
We heard testimony, and my friend knows this, that led to amendments on this piece of legislation. As for cases, we asked the Library of Parliament to look at how the Conservatives approach amendments from the opposition, and 99.3% of all amendments moved by the opposition on a variety of bills have been rejected by the government out of hand. The basis of the amendments in this particular case came from those very shippers.
New Democrats will not sacrifice the mediocre seeking out the perfect, and in this case, we have a bill that moves us further down the road. The challenge is that governments only look at something like our rail system every so often, sometimes only once in a generation. To do only half measures and not listen to the testimony of those people my friend quoted seems a disappointment, because the rest of the quotes say there were improvements that they sought but were unable to achieve in this round of negotiations. They were about the arbitration and about the fines that will be levied on these major rail shippers who will not really feel the pinch.
The reason there is time allocation on the bill is not because we did not support it. It is because the government decided to shut down debate for no purpose at all. That kind of obstinance does not lead to good legislation. It does not lead to good governance.
Chris Warkentin Conservative Peace River, AB
Mr. Speaker, the hon. member may not take my word for it, but why do we not take the word of folks who know what they are talking about? I will quote some of them.
These measures will create the conditions for improved railway performance and accountability. It will help ensure all shippers can gain access to an adequate level of service.
That was the president of the Western Canadian Wheat Growers Association.
We especially thank [the] Agriculture Minister...[the] Transportation Minister...and the federal government for listening to farmers and moving this legislation ahead.
That was from the president of the Grain Growers of Canada.
[T]his legislation is critical—not only for our industry's competitiveness, but for Canada's overall productivity and prosperity.
That was from the CEO of the Chemistry Industry Association of Canada.
We will support opposition amendments when they make sense, and that is exactly what we have done 0.7% of the time.
Joe Preston Conservative Elgin—Middlesex—London, ON
Mr. Speaker, it is great to be here tonight, even at this hour. I guess it is great to be here this morning, now. I appreciate the opportunity to discuss Bill C-52.
The Conservative government has proposed new legislation to improve Canada's freight rail service—
Joe Preston Conservative Elgin—Middlesex—London, ON
Mr. Speaker, those are great comments from the Liberals, but I do not know what they are saying.
I am going to tell them a little story about town called St. Thomas in southern Ontario, where the railways ran for many years in our country. Sometimes as many as 13 railways ran through the city of St. Thomas, as it happened to be in a straight line between Chicago and New York City and Detroit and Buffalo. It cut through the Canada Southern and a number of other railways. It was in a day when the railway was the way we transported all of the goods in Canada. We transported people, goods and the resources that Canada was known for in those days.
I will tell another little story about St. Thomas in Ontario and a rail incident. P.T. Barnum brought the circus to town in 1886. I am sorry, but Jumbo the elephant was walking down the train line on the day it was moving the circus into town and was struck by a locomotive and killed--
