Transport committee  Goodness.

Transport committee  Yes, go ahead.

Transport committee  I have a couple of other comments. In April of last year, Mr. Garneau made the following statement: “I see transportation in Canada as a single, interconnected system that drives the Canadian economy.” If the overall objective is to make our economy as competitive as possible on a global basis, then all the things in Bill C-49, and obviously other pieces of legislation and so on, and our trade agreements, whether NAFTA or CETA or whatever, should be geared towards that objective.

Transport committee  I would say the simple answer to that is yes. The definition of a shipper should be quite broad. Usually the term that's used is the beneficial owner of the cargo as the real shipper, but it could be a freight forwarder. It could be a short-line railway, and I think that would make a lot of sense, actually, for the short-line railways to have some of those rights.

Transport committee  That's right. This is a relatively minor provision, and it seemed to make sense to me. My point here today is that the hundred companies that are in our membership support this.

Transport committee  It's probably true that they are. This provision is included in the CETA agreement. I suspect it may be something that the Europeans wanted, though I'm not certain of that. What happens now under the Coasting Trade Act is that any movements between Canadian ports have to be done in Canadian flagged ships.

Transport committee  No, actually, I haven't read the CETA, or haven't committed it to memory. My recollection is that it is reciprocal, that it would allow Canadian-flagged ships the same privilege within Europe. However, the number of Canadian-flagged shipping lines operating internationally is either very small or not existent at all.

Transport committee  Yes, it would.

Transport committee  Thank you very much. What I wanted to say is this. In our formal submission we did indicate that we support the proposed changes to the Coasting Trade Act that are included in Bill C-49. These give effect to a requirement of the Canada-European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement.

Transport committee  Thank you for the opportunity to appear. FMA has been representing the freight transportation concerns of Canadian industry, including rail, truck, marine, and air cargo, to various levels of government and international agencies since 1916. We're now in our 101st year, and, despite appearances, I was not at the first meeting.

Transport committee  The simple answer is no, I wouldn't agree with you.

Transport committee  Thank you. This appears to be appropriate and it looks as if there is provision for further changes, if necessary. Third, the administrative monetary penalties, AMPS, section 177 of the act is amended by adding proposed subsections 177 (2.1) and 177(2.2), providing for penalties of up to $100,000 per violation for failure to keep the agency apprised of changes and that are in violation and to remit the levies and to keep appropriate accounting records.

Transport committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. I appeared before this committee just about a year ago when it was talking about safety management systems in particular, and the safe and accountable rail act, of course, is a good follow-up to the work that's gone on over the past year. The Freight Management Association has been around for 99 years representing the views of shippers.

Transport committee  The way the Railway Safety Act is structured, it encourages the rail safety directorate and the inspectors they have across the country to carry out fairly rigorous inspections. In situations where the rail safety directorate sees there are chronic violations, then clearly there should be some penalty provision and the act provides for that.

Transport committee  Yes.