Transport committee  Thank you very much. I represent Tata Steel Minerals Canada. It's a mining company in the northern part of Canada in remote sub-Arctic conditions. We have iron ore deposits straddling Newfoundland and Labrador and Quebec. We have put a very significant investment—over $1.5 billion—into the company.

Transport committee  In our dealings, we have not come across any conversations around the impact of this bill.

Transport committee  Given where we are, ours is a 100% export business. We have two departs. One is the inland transport, which is the rail transport. Our mine is situated up north in the Menihek and the Schefferville regions across Quebec and Labrador. The iron ore has to travel more than 600 kilometres to come to the port.

Transport committee  If I understood the question correctly, you asked, if the railing was adequate, then would the port be able to cope with all the exporting requirements. No. As of now, the bigger problem is the port infrastructure. When you have to export bulk commodities, there is a terminal on which the ship berths, and you lower it.

Transport committee  Right now we are in a ramp-up phase, so, really, the question of unused capacity will come later. Right now we are, let's say, at three million tonnes, and it has to be ramped up to seven million to eight million tonnes.

Transport committee  As I was explaining, the infrastructure that is supporting the dock was owned by a private company and hence the access per se was blocked. Today the conversation has moved on from access to adequacy. Due to the unfortunate circumstance of difficult market conditions, the Quebec government acquired those assets and facilities.

Transport committee  Yes.

Transport committee  No, our iron ore is right now DSO. It comes from the mines in Quebec. It is exported by ships, yes, 100%.

Transport committee  We are in a ramp-up phase, so capacity going up will be about seven million to eight million tonnes.

Transport committee  An associated answer to that is that right now we have made short-term commercial arrangements with a private company, through a private board of IOC, and, obviously, that is not on good economic terms.

Transport committee  Yes.

Transport committee  We have the plan, but we have bottlenecks as well in that plan.

Transport committee  Okay.

Transport committee  Yes.

Transport committee  When I say logistics challenges, there are three components: capacity, service and cost. These are the three challenges.