Thanks for the question.
Yes, that goes back to quite a long time ago, and it keeps popping its head up from time to time. It's probably a project that still should be looked at, especially to move trucks between the Peace Bridge, where Mr. Reinas is, all the way up to the Hamilton airport, which is one of the largest cargo airports in Canada, and then across the 403-401 corridor. It would alleviate a lot of the QEW coming from the GTA down into Niagara over the Burlington Skyway, and at least it would get people moving faster.
It's more than just highways; it's actually our rail system. Our rail system, quite frankly, in Niagara isn't the greatest system. There are some inefficiencies. We ripped out lots of tracks over the years, and now we look back and wish we had those again, specifically the Buffalo to Detroit line that followed Highway 3 all the way from Buffalo-Fort Erie to Windsor-Detroit. Having that line today would alleviate a lot of things.
I think one thing I've said, and a lot of the other people have said today is the fact that we're not here to take away rail or trucking and make everything go through the St. Lawrence Seaway authority with shipping. We're trying to meld everybody together so that we can all work together, but instead of trucks travelling for hours and hours on end, we could actually ship more. A number of people, both Ian and Jean Aubry spoke about this, with regard to the cargo on the ships and how many trucks it takes off the road, how many railcars it takes off the rails. Short-line rail is something we can look at for southern Ontario, also short-line trucking with a lot of firms. In our neighbourhood, we have one short-line trucking firm that travels in southern Ontario for all the goods for the markets that he deals with.
Those things need to be looked at. That's how you look at the environmental aspect of this and getting rid of CO2. Also look at electrification of shipping. Hydrogen fuel for shipping is another thing. A possibility is looking at biofuel from grain for airlines. We need to look at how we can start processing those types of commodities here in southern Ontario within Niagara.