Thank you.
The reason we excluded interchanges in those two corridors was simply because of the amount of traffic that moves in those corridors. The interchange points in those corridors normally offer competition, but we recognize the point you made about the captive shippers, particularly in northern Quebec and northern B.C., and in fact in northern and southern Alberta as well, which is that where they have access to only one railway, the nearest interchange point for some of them happens to be the point inside that corridor.
For example, in British Columbia, the interchange point is Kamloops. The other interchange points are further south. In fact, with the way we worded it in the bill, they would be precluded from interchanging traffic at that point. I think giving them access to Kamloops will enable a lot of those shippers in those remote area to have access to a proper interchange.
I think the same point applies to the Quebec-Windsor corridor for the traffic in northern Quebec, because they have access to only one railway. In the corridor, the logical interchange point would be Montreal, because there would be no other in-between interchange point. I think the member is correct: this would give them the opportunity to interchange at those two locations.