Transport committee  With respect to the gateways, as the minister indicated, I guess the MOUs that were signed for Quebec, Ontario, and the federal government, and similarly in the Atlantic region, call for a series of studies and examinations. These will look at trade flows, traffic patterns, infra

Transport committee  There is another piece of legislation, the Marine Transportation Security Act, that deals more specifically with security considerations. Of course, when it comes to clearance of cargo, I guess that falls even somewhat further to the revenue and customs authority.

Transport committee  I'll answer briefly. Taxes are payable by the leasees on any port lands at commercial rates. So there's no competitive benefit, if you will, for them in that regard. I don't know if Ms. Kavanagh would like to comment.

Transport committee  As I said earlier, nothing is really targeted in the bill. It is based on the amalgamation of the three ports in southern British Columbia. At that point, it was clear that some provisions were needed in the act to make amalgamation easier when boards of directors had indicated t

Transport committee  I wasn't specifically the secretary to the review, but that review was conducted under the auspices of the office for which I'm the director general.

Transport committee  I wouldn't say it, but....

Transport committee  I think we do try our best to make sure we know what's going on in the marine sector.

Transport committee  Indeed, I think each port authority typically goes through a fairly rigorous exercise to look at what kind of spinoff effects there are in the local regional economies. The port authorities do issue annual reports that outline their contribution to the economies. They outline t

Transport committee  There are provisions being proposed here...particularly access to contribution funding, which, I would assume, ports would factor into their long-term plans as one possible option. As you know, the Ontario-Quebec continental gateway and trade corridor initiative was announced b

Transport committee  That's correct, sir. This is an economic policy legislative framework. It outlines the rules under which the port authorities operate. Right now there is a specific prohibition, and the intent here, by virtue of the proposed amendment, is to remove that prohibition.

Transport committee  On the west coast, there are obvious pressures coming from U.S. ports south of the Vancouver ports, south of Prince Rupert. Now, fortunately, the assessment has been made that there are competitive advantages in terms of the amount of time it takes for a shipping line to arrive a

Transport committee  From the discussions we've had to date—and I made reference to a press release that the Association of Canadian Port Authorities released last week—I think generally they feel that this is very much in the right direction and, presumably, would support that. I would imagine that

Transport committee  Exactly, shippers, importers and exporters, and a variety of other interests, and the shipping lines—the vessel operators—would use them.

Transport committee  In response to your question, no other amalgamations are specifically targeted here. All we're doing is based on the experience we've had with the Lower Mainland amalgamation; we've had to work within the confines of an act that didn't specifically recognize the prospects for an

Transport committee  I'll answer in terms of what we have heard. We have heard from port authorities, but we have heard also from other marine interests in terms of the fact that various projects related to the marine sector and related to port operations or installations are maybe not advanced as ra