Transport committee  I think that would be an interesting question to put to the railways when they're here—

Transport committee  That's right.

Transport committee  Yes.

Transport committee  There are penalties. A penalty scheme, what the shipper—

Transport committee  It doesn't go to the shipper, but it is a mechanism to provide for enforcement of the contract to make the railway accountable, to respect the contract.

Transport committee  The administrative monetary penalty is intended to be a deterrent, or looked at another way, an incentive to comply with the contract.

Transport committee  The way the railways operate their networks, rail service operates very much like a bus route operates. So what you're looking at are the needs of everybody along the route and you're trying to come up with a schedule and an approach to serve everybody's needs in an efficient way.

Transport committee  That is right.

Transport committee  Are you talking about penalties?

Transport committee  There is the option of going to court, but there is also the option of going to the agency to have it apply administrative monetary penalties.

Transport committee  The shippers told us that they did not want price to be addressed in the arbitration; they did not want it to cover rates. They wanted it to focus on service.

Transport committee  It cannot provide for a penalty scheme, which was what the shippers were proposing. It can certainly include mechanisms to deal with failure, such as recovery mechanisms, for example. It can talk about operational activities that would happen in the event of a failure, how to get back on track.

Transport committee  The shippers were very clear in the consultations we had that they wanted these arbitrated agreements to be confidential. The reason we understand that to be the case is they felt it would provide competitive information about their business that they didn't want in the public domain.

Transport committee  What the arbitrator imposes will have the force of a contract, so the railway has the option to sue for breach of contract.

Transport committee  The provisions on rail service in the Canada Transportation Act are obligations on railways. They impose obligations on railways; they do not impose obligations on shippers. This bill reflects that same approach.