I fully understand that the perspective is historic. At the time when production was minimal, that was understandable, but today, it would be unacceptable. Thank you.
My second question is about interswitching and, specifically, the possibility for a railway company to request an interchange to be removed from its list. Subclauses 136.9(1) and (2) of the bill describe the obligations of railway companies to keep up to date a list of the locations of interchanges and a process including a 60-day notice to remove an interchange from that list.
From reading that, my understanding was that, after a 60-day notice, the obligations no longer applied since the time expired. However, in its FAQ last week, Transport Canada notes that the railway companies have other general obligations that they must continue to fulfill beyond the 60 days.
There is an issue with the consistency between Bill C-49 and Transport Canada's FAQ. At the very least, there is a lack of clarity in terms of the general obligations that carriers must fulfill.