As I noted in my opening statement, Mr. Chairman, there were three corporations in which we identified significant deficiencies or concerns with those corporations' systems and practices. Those relate first to Via Rail.
Via Rail has been facing a number of ongoing strategic challenges for many years. These relate to the access it has to the tracks. The tracks are owned by CN, so Via has concerns and issues and challenges that it has yet to fully resolve in terms of access to those tracks.
Via Rail has also had difficulty in recent years in meeting the financial targets that are set out in its corporate plan. It has consistently underperformed. It has not met those targets. We were concerned that it didn't have contingency plans in place for what would happen if it was not able to meet those targets. We were also concerned about their planning processes, in that the planning processes consistently provided targets that the corporation hasn't been able to meet.
Those are some of the key challenges in Via Rail.
We also reported a significant deficiency in the Great Lakes Pilotage Authority. In this case the major concern has to do with an exemption from compulsory pilotage in the Great Lakes. This system of exemption was put in place in 1972. It was originally intended to be temporary; 35 years later, it has still not been resolved.
In our view, the authority does not have an effective mechanism to provide it with reasonable assurance that Canadian masters and deck watch officers have the competencies and qualifications needed to ensure the safe passage of their ships in the compulsory pilotage areas.
In its response to our report, the corporation indicated that it intended to make regulatory changes in 2008. We inquired earlier this week as to the status of those regulatory changes, and they have not yet been made. We think that too is an important issue, an important deficiency, in the Great Lakes Pilotage Authority.