Transport committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Chair and honourable members. It's really good to be here. I have to say that the report we're really focused on today was initiated nearly two years ago, and was submitted to the Minister of Transport about eight months ago, so I've had lots of soak ti

Transport committee  Thank you very much for that question. I take you back to the foundation upon which we developed our thinking on transportation issues, and that was to look out 25 to 30 years. The interswitching debate is really a very narrow debate because interswitching, as you know, applies

Transport committee  In the report, as I indicated earlier, there is a whole chapter on governance. Part of the governance improvements would include the establishment of a transportation and logistics advisory council that would incorporate all of the different shipping interests, as well as provinc

Transport committee  I don't think it's a big problem to leave it in, to be honest with you, but I do think it's a big problem if there isn't consideration to a longer-term evolution to allow a broader interswitching capacity going forward. Mr. Al-Katib is actually our expert on the panel. Murad, do

Transport committee  No is the short answer. In government there is a lack of a cross-government mechanism for policy in the various departments. Whether it's international trade, global affairs, environment, environmental issues, or northern issues, there is a need within government for a broader fo

Transport committee  There is no doubt in my mind that trade corridors and gateways are critical to the efficiency of the transportation system and the way it supports international trade going forward. In the report we have talked extensively about trade corridors and gateways. We've spoken of the n

Transport committee  I generally believe, apart from crisis management, which is by its very nature immediate, you're always better off to have a strategy and make your individual decisions within the context of a strategy.

Transport committee  I think once you have a chance to reflect on the report in its entirety, you'll see we do not argue that the transportation system is entirely competitive. In my opening remarks I alluded to enormous and numerous power imbalances in the system because of the nature of transportat

Transport committee  That's a really good comment. The report is quite emphatic that isolated communities, with particular reference to the north, will not be served effectively by free market competition. The distances are huge. The passenger loads are very thin or small. The ability to finance tran

Transport committee  In the report, we were quite emphatic that the transportation system, first off, is a system. It's a very complex system with many moving parts, many different companies and players involved. The grain system is no different. On the grain side, we argue in the report that we ne

Transport committee  The interswitching issue. Give him your 30-second elevator talk.

Transport committee  Yes.

Transport committee  It's always possible. The question is money and having the corridor or the land to do it. We actually gave some radical thought to really dramatically different models of building and operating railways, and we looked around the world at different countries and the way they do it

Transport committee  No. I think what is clear, and it's articulated in the report, is that Canadian agriculture in particular, but I would also argue that Canadian bulk cargo, travels a longer distance to get to tidewater than in most other competing jurisdictions like Australia, the U.S., or elsewh

Transport committee  Well, aerospace is a whole separate report that I was involved in a couple of years ago. I guess I'll just make a couple of comments. One is that we need to continue to make it a national industrial priority. Regarding space in particular, Canada has been a leader in space for