Yes, thanks very much.
I am Michael Bourque. I am with the Railway Association of Canada. We are the voice of the Canadian rail industry. We like to say we are moving people, goods, and the economy. The reason we say that is that our large class I carriers—CN, CP, and BNSF—operate on more than 45,000 kilometres of track, which is larger than our national highway system. We represent over 40 short-line private railroads that contribute a quarter of the traffic carried by class I carriers. We also represent passenger railways, including commuter, tourist, and inner-city railways. We keep business moving. We improve productivity while reducing congestion, and we enable people from around the world to witness our beautiful country and drink our excellent wine.
I have five slides here, so I will move through them very quickly, given the short amount of time there is. I will go to the second slide.
Rail business in this country is handling 75% of all surface traffic. I should add that we do so while emitting 3% of the greenhouse gas emissions in the transportation sector. That's a pretty good deal. We move about 60% of the volume of GDP.
In 2012, railways are expected to invest more than $3 billion in infrastructure, rolling stock, and technologies. That's about 20% of revenues. Even through the recession, we have continued to invest in this country. I would challenge you to find another industry that is investing so much in infrastructure.
The graph is very interesting. You will see that intermodal is a significant piece of the pie. Let me explain that. Intermodal means we are using more than one mode to move products. The reason for the growth is container shipments. For example, the port of Prince Rupert has grown from moving one container in 2007 to an expected 550,000 containers in 2012. This is not just import business. This is significant export business for Canada. Some $5 billion in exports from the port of Prince Rupert is expected this year.