Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you, colleagues.
I was hoping the committee would be able to consider the amendments on pages 13 and 13.1 in tandem, Mr. Chair, because they are linked to the overall reporting requirements of the department and the minister--well, the minister first and the department second, I suppose.
It is a proposal that we vary the reporting requirements by maintaining the minister's responsibility to keep annual the review of the overall goings-on of the transport sector in the country, as opposed to every three years, which is what is proposed in the bill.
There are a few reasons that I think this is important for us to consider. One is it's clear to all of us as MPs and as Canadians that we're seeing increasing evidence of stressors and evidence of infrastructure deficits right across the country in federal, provincial, and municipal infrastructure settings. In fact, it's becoming a bit of an egregious problem for Canadians.
The second reason I think it's important is that Canada is urbanizing faster than we ever expected it to; in 100 years we've really gone from a 10% urban society to an almost 90% urban society. The transport infrastructure in particular, then, is going to be increasingly put to the test. We're seeing an increased incidence of flights, so much so that many of my neighbours describe our modern airports as modern bus stations. I think it might be helpful for Canadians if there were a yearly opportunity for us as MPs and for Canadians generally to be informed of the overall situation and status of transport in the country.
I'm also proposing here, Mr. Chair, in amendment L-1.1, taking into consideration the onerous nature of this annual report--which I assume is the rationale for moving from one year to three years--that more emphasis be placed on a fifth-year report every five years. Under amendment L-1.1, the minister would expand the scope of the report to look at some longer-term perspectives, some longer-term trends, and take a longer-term look at the transport industry--for example, rail, trucking, and so on and so forth.
It mitigates concerns I think that an annual industry review alone is too focused on yearly changes, Mr. Chair, as opposed to tracking trends. I think I spoke to the same kind of rationale earlier when it came to the Air Travel Complaints Commissioner's role of tracking trends over time, as opposed to reporting on isolated complaints or isolated complaints that have been resolved there.
That's what I wanted to submit to the committee under amendments L-1 and L-1.1.
