Thank you for those questions.
You're right, I have enjoyed my time travelling; the northern part of my travels was a unique pleasure in my past portfolio. It's something I encourage for all Canadians. If we're talking about transportation, I urge them all to take a trip up north and enjoy that part of Canada as well. It's a great part of the world.
We put quite a bit of emphasis, as you know, on the rail service review. It's coming to a close now. We have an interim report that was published during this last week or so. In that, the independent panel made a series of recommendations on rail service issues that tried to address some of this quasi-monopolistic reality we have in Canada, whereby you have two railways but often, depending on where you live in the geography, only one option.
During the rail service review, an independent panel met with all these folks, as did we all, but the independent panel came forward with a series of recommendations that they hoped would address some of this exclusive provider problem—I guess you'd call it a monopolistic provider—and some of those issues that were raised in submissions by shippers and by ports and others.
I met with the forestry crowd this week, and agricultural groups, and so on, and I've urged them during the time that the draft report has come forward—the final report will be written up in the next few weeks—to make sure they put their oars in the water and address the concerns raised in that service review. Many of the issues are going to be contained in the service review, because it's not just about costing, but about placement of cars, a capacity for reciprocity with the railways, enforceable commercial contracts, and all those things that go with it. I've urged them to comment on that so that when the final report comes in, the government can react to it.
I've told the agricultural guys to deal with the review, that I want to see it dealt with first, before we deal with a cost review. We can't really do them both hand in hand, so I've asked them to do them sequentially. We'll do that one first and see whether it addresses their issues.