Transport committee  I think the mediation process is a very fair and balanced process and allows both sides an equal ability to put their points of view forward. Let me clarify the difference between the mediation process and our formal process, because there seem to be a couple of questions on this.

Transport committee  Absolutely. Mediation is a collaborative process between parties, and we give the parties what they prefer. In some cases parties prefer confidential discussions because it's an active case before the agency, so that part is confidential. But in other cases they have no desire for confidentiality of any part of the process, in which case there's nothing in our rules that requires that either.

Transport committee  In that case you would not have an effective mediation. One of the first things you have to do in a mediation is settle some of the classic things like whether you have the authority to settle, or whether you agree that it should be confidential or public. How much time do you have?

Transport committee  I can't recall ever getting a case in the marine area at all. We would, of course, be happy to mediate one if one came in, but normally that isn't part of our overall operations.

Transport committee  I'm essentially saying that the agency's normal 120 days would be operative if there were an official case before us.

Transport committee  In the normal course of action in mediation we are able to resolve something in a relatively short time. If it's an official case before the agency the standard timeline of the agency case takes precedence. Remember that we're operating in a court atmosphere with natural justice.

Transport committee  One hundred and twenty days is the law under the act. Obviously when we go to mediation we try to expedite the case as quickly as possible. I should also point out that the agency can make an order out of a mediation if both parties agree. It has done so in the past in a number of different areas, particularly rail infrastructure cases.

Transport committee  The way this process is envisaged right now, in the first stage the parties having a problem would be encouraged to get together with the carriers to see if they could solve the problems among themselves. Should that not happen, they could apply to the agency under our normal standard process and we would open our process, in which case we would interact with the parties in the most efficient way we could.

Transport committee  First of all, the agency offers mediation in every case that comes before it. We have many professionally trained mediators. We in fact trained ourselves in this area. Over the past two or three years, we have been quite successful in settling disputes through mediation in all the modes of transportation.

Transport committee  Guidelines are an overall framework to handle the situation. We react to issues upon complaint. The problem would be presented to us, so by application we would know what the problem is. The guidelines are designed to be general and cover virtually all possibilities that could come before us.

Transport committee  According to the Canada Transportation Act, all cases before the agency have to be resolved within 120 working days unless the parties themselves agree to an extension.

Transport committee  May I respond in English? Prior to 2003, we received numerous complaints on issues that covered a broader spectrum than noise. Often, noise is part of the overall issue, whether there's noise, vibration, and so on. We were successfully able to handle a number of these cases to a positive resolution.

Transport committee  Mr. McGuinty, I think the agency has the flexibility to take remedial measures when necessary. Remember that according to the act that's proposed, this will be the end product of what, if you like, didn't work. If negotiations didn't work, if mediation didn't work, if we didn't have a cooperative process to solve something, the agency would look into the situation, and where necessary, according to the decision the agency makes, they would render a decision that is in effect an official order.

Transport committee  If I can be of some comfort in this sense, the agency is a relatively easy place for citizens to interact with, and when there's an issue of going to where the affected community is, we have a history of being out there, of touching the problem. I would expect that this would work in the same way; we intend to consult and we intend to consult with interested parties.

Transport committee  Yes, but there's obviously a big difference between a formal complaint and people calling up their local representative to do that. According to the Federal Court, we kind of extended our power beyond what the act said. So we lost the power to deal with noise complaints, until it's been reintroduced in the legislation.