I want to thank the committee for the opportunity to be here. I'm pleased to answer any questions with regard to areas of my specific jurisdiction, and when it comes to stimulus, that would be Alberta and Saskatchewan. I'm pleased to answer any questions you might have with regard to those projects.
There are 280 projects in Alberta, for a total project amount of $3 billion or so. In Saskatchewan, there are 309 projects, for a total of about $1.2 billion. As far as the stimulus funding goes, we have 100% of that allocated, so we're pleased to be able to answer any questions on that.
But with regard to the rest of my portfolio, there is some spending in the estimates, you'll see, with regard to Canada Post and CATSA, and I would be pleased to answer any questions you might have. There's some spending and there are some changes there that you might want to ask some questions on.
Also, I'd be pleased to answer anything about the railway. It's an important day for the railway, because we've just heard the strike is over and 1,700 railway engineers are back to work. That is very, very good news because there is $100 billion a year of import-export rail service to this country. It's a very significant thing that has happened. I think everyone in this room, every party in this House, certainly should take a bow for being able to move that issue along.
When it comes to the railway, it is very important for us to understand that it is what keeps our country competitive. There's a very large land mass in Canada relative to the population, so as raw material is our base, shipping and moving products is very key to our prosperity.
With that, we have had some concerns from the shippers about CN and CP, which are the two main rail lines, with regard to allowing the competitiveness of our shippers in the supply chain. Because of that, we have brought forward and established the rail freight service review. We're in the middle of that. The first stage is over, with a compilation of a lot of the data. That has taken about a year.
We have now moved into the second stage and have announced the panel that will bring forward recommendations to government. That panel's chair is Walter Paszkowski, a former transport minister in the Province of Alberta. From the railway industry, we have David Edison, who's a former CN executive, and from the shippers, we have Bill LeGrow, a former forestry executive. These are very astute individuals. I'm very pleased at that they're taking on this opportunity for the country.
It's an opportunity both for rail and for shippers to be able to keep our competitive edge as we move forward in the 21st century. We wish the panel every success. They will be releasing an interim report in the first half of 2010, a very significant report that will hopefully flow from it some potential changes that will have met with consensus from both the shippers and the rail companies. We look forward to that.
With that, I'll leave my comments there, and we'll entertain any questions you might have on these issues or any others.