Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to speak on Bill C-101, whose primary objective is to modernize rail transportation legislation, redefine the mandate of the National Transportation Agency and further deregulate air transportation.
As we estimate that nearly 75 per cent of this bill concerns rail transportation, you will understand this important subject will be the focus of our intervention.
For that reason, as far as the Bloc Quebecois is concerned, Bill C-101 will need definite improvements. I can assure the minister that it will be possible to work much more effectively if there is some kind of openness on the part of his colleagues on the Standing Committee on Transport-and I am talking here about his colleagues representing the Liberal majority.
One of the first points that has to be criticized is clause 89, which says that the bill applies to any railway, whether or not constructed under the authority of an Act of Parliament, that is "owned, controlled, leased or operated by a company wholly or partly within legislative authority of Parliament".
This means that Bill C-101 applies to any SLR, which stands for short line railway, owned or controlled by a national railway, whether it be CN or CP. We recently saw an example of a short line controlled by CN in the La Tuque, Abitibi and Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean area.
Moreover, these railways are declared to be works for the general advantage of Canada. You will understand that, in the current referendum debate, our party will want to change that all-encompassing approach which includes everything that can be for the general advantage of Canada.
We will also ask clarifications about clause 90, which authorizes Parliament to pass legislation declaring any railway owned by a company registered under a federal or provincial statute to be a work for the general advantage of Canada. In these circumstances, provincial railway acts, like the one we have in Quebec, no longer apply and the company is regulated by the federal government. I am sure you realize this is totally unacceptable to us.
Moreover, in clause 99, the agency is not required to conduct an environmental study before authorizing the construction of a railway line. Again, Quebec is on the leading edge as far as the environment is concerned. Therefore, we will have to obtain amendments to clause 99.
Clause 104 of the bill says that if an owner's land is divided as a result of the construction of a railway line, the owner must pay for the construction and maintenance of a crossing. We think this is ridiculous. Why would the owner of the land have to pay when it is the railway company that is using the land? The railway company should pay.
Clause 113 provides that rates and conditions of service established by the agency must be commercially fair and reasonable. We think that this provision is there to please railway companies which often have had to buy equipment to service a client without benefitting from a contract that was long enough to allow the company to write off the cost of such equipment.
The list could go on but, since this is only a ten-minute speech, I would not have enough time to say all I want to say in this, my first speech since the House reconvened in September.
Bill C-101 will have an effect on Quebec with regard to the new process for transferring or discontinuing the operation of a railway line. I have had the opportunity before to say in this House that the abandonment of railway lines used to be almost automatically approved by the National Transportation Agency. Now, the company will have to demonstrate that it took all the necessary measures to offer the railway line on the market and if nobody is interested-We see the beginning of a solution, but it will have to be improved on.
Of course, we received from many shippers requests for clarification of this legislation or for changes to it, specially in relation with the introduction of running rights for short line railways, provided that reciprocity not be given to main railway carriers.
I therefore open the door to shippers for an alliance with our party, the Bloc Quebecois. They will have an opportunity to defend their views in the Standing Committee on Transport.
I would like, of course, to conclude my remarks by referring to the referendum. It goes without saying that when Quebec has full power, it will not have to rely on a national transportation agency filled with friends of the party in power. Even though the composition of the National Transportation Agency has been reduced from nine members to three, we are still caught in the same vicious circle of having to deal with friends of the government.
I do not want to be disrespectful to Mr. Rivard, a very competent lawyer from Quebec City who was appointed by the Conservatives, but I can predict today, October 2, that Mr. Rivard's mandate on the National Transportation Agency will probably not be renewed and that we will see, as was the case with the members of the Port of Quebec's board of directors, some good friends of the government, some Liberals of good standing, appointed to head the National Transportation Agency.
So this is just shifting the problem. Our party will of course keep on denouncing such partisan appointments.