Thank you, Mr. Laframboise.
I have to say that you are quite right in your assessment of the essential reason for the bill. Costs are indeed too high, and I am sure that you will have seen that the bill also deals with the entire question of ancillary charges. Procedures are already being put in place that will allow these things to be corrected.
As I said in my answer to your colleague a few moments ago, what we want to do first and foremost is make sure that the final offer process can start as soon as the bill is passed and becomes law, with no further delay. The process itself gives our partners, the shippers especially, a guarantee that things are moving forward.
In the meantime, we have given them the undertaking that we will look at service levels. We will do this subsequently look that we are sure that we get that stage right. You asked me how long we think that it will take; my answer is about six months. But our shippers cannot be penalized in the meantime. Because of the mechanisms proposed in the bill, we can start to look at the financial aspects as soon as it is passed.
I am being handed a document here that lists the responsibilities of the railways. Basically, Mr. Laframboise, the service provisions of the bill place a host of service responsibilities on the railways. Specifically, they authorize the Canadian Transportation Agency to investigate complaints and provide it with the power to require corrective action if necessary. The bill does not change these provisions in the slightest. They are still there, but the government has undertaken to examine services, as the bill states. What follows clearly explains the act's provisions on service levels.
A railway's service obligation is that the railway company is required to furnish adequate and suitable accommodation for the receiving and loading of all traffic offered for carriage; to furnish adequate and suitable accommodation for the carriage, unloading and delivering of the traffic; to receive, carry and deliver the traffic without delay, and with due care and diligence; to furnish and use all proper appliances, accommodation and means necessary for receiving, loading, carrying, unloading and delivering the traffic; and to furnish any other service incidental to transportation that is customary or usual in connection with the business of a railway company. The traffic must be taken, carried to and from, and delivered on the payment of the lawfully payable rate.
You see that a railway company must provide people with suitable facilities for transporting, delivering and transferring of goods. And a company that has or operates a railway forming part of a line that links or intersects with another railway must also provide all reasonable facilities.
This is exactly what we want to review, but in the meantime, the other elements, that I hope the committee will move to adopt, will already be under way; there will already be a process designed to provide the basic balance and fairness, if you will, that we want to see in the market.