Transport committee  With municipalities at the table as well, of course.

Transport committee  Thank you very much.

Transport committee  It's my understanding that it's a notification. Then whatever the planning processes are in Ontario as a result of the notification would kick in. That would probably differ from province to province to territory, as well as between municipalities. Different municipalities, under the umbrella of whatever the notification was, would have different processes on how they conduct their public hearings when you're looking at land-use amendments.

Transport committee  You would think they would. I'm also from Alberta—Edmonton, actually—so I'm well aware of the way the public hearing process works, the notification process. But depending on the capacity with the municipalities, the smaller municipalities may not go through the same consultation process that a large municipality would go through.

Transport committee  No, we haven't done that. This is an issue that has just come to our attention. If there is a recommendation from the committee to move forward with this, we will obviously need to do some of what you're asking in terms of indicating the issue by moving forward with an amendment, as proposed by the RAC.

Transport committee  I think in this particular case it's the land usage issue if it lies within the provincial and territorial jurisdictions. Just to go back to a point you made about the 300 metres, we don't have a problem with the notification. Whether it's 300 metres or 250 metres, that, I think again, will depend on what each jurisdiction requires and comes to as a result of the negotiations.

Transport committee  The difference, and what we're supportive of, is the discussions that occurred with regard to the municipal land-use issue, which is within provincial and territorial jurisdictions and not within federal jurisdiction. We are suggesting the process was a good process. Whether that process provided for 250, 300, or 350 metres, that was the outcome of the process.

Transport committee  We have an example of where it worked quite well in Ontario. Through the provincial government and the municipalities--the associations there--and the railway, they came to an understanding and agreement on the 300 metres. So there is an example and a model there. It fits the needs of the municipalities in Ontario, as well as the needs of the provincial government.

Transport committee  I think the biggest success was just getting to sit down at the table to talk to each other. That has not always been the past practice. At times the relationship between the municipalities and the railways has not been the friendliest, and it has been adversarial at times. The memorandum of understanding provides us with a forum where we can sit down, discuss some of the issues you have brought up in the questions today, and move beyond fixed positions towards how to deal with these issues, looking at some of the best practices.

Transport committee  Not to my knowledge, no.

Transport committee  Yes. The mayor is our host while we are here. He is part of FCM, absolutely.

Transport committee  I'm not aware, but Councillor Henderson might be.

Transport committee  No, we don't have an opposition in terms of the requirement to consult. We do that with our landowners. We do that as a normal process in terms of land use. Our issue, as you indicated at the outset, is that this is not within federal jurisdiction; that this is a land-use planning issue, which is within municipal and provincial-territorial jurisdiction; and that by trying to make it a one-size-fits-all, what will end up happening is that we'll create a lot of difficulties across the country, because one size does not fit all.

Transport committee  And the strength, as you know, of our association in terms of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities is that we do incorporate--have sitting at the table--the provincial and territorial associations as well, which gives us access to the provincial and territorial orders of government, who are the overarching bodies in terms of our planning authorities as municipalities.

Transport committee  Thank you for that question, because that's exactly what the work of the proximity steering committee is about. Councillor Henderson will give you a little bit more detail about the exact work, but it's ongoing. The committee was put together precisely to deal with those types of issues--the proximity issues and the conflicts that sometimes occur when you have railway lines in populated areas or railway lines that are at level crossings.