Transport committee  I don't disagree. Certainly with respect to the other regulatory legislation we're working under, substantial fines, jail sentence, personal liability, and creative sentencing are all standard, as well as making the law binding on the crown.

Transport committee  I express our appreciation for being allowed to come to speak to you about this. Good luck with your deliberations.

Transport committee  I probably would agree with you. I find it, of course, a little amusing, in that most of us who are involved in the business of trying to get things built recognize that there are many approvals that we have to get and many opportunities for the public to express their opinion on

Transport committee  You asked two questions. Certainly in generalizing that phrase to deal with works rather than simply bridges, we have included everything that was built prior to 1995. I acknowledge that. Perhaps my friends in Transport Canada can better advise as to whether there are a significa

Transport committee  Not necessarily. I would in fact like to see Transport Canada's staff be allowed to have more time in the field actually dealing with waterways and boating clubs and folks like that, rather than processing applications in an outmoded approvals process. Right now, I feel that they

Transport committee  I certainly could.

Transport committee  Let me make it clear. The wording I latched onto is the wording that is in the act right now. And from the context in the act, “reconstruction” means putting it back the way it was, not modifying it. In reality, of course, if we were going to make significant investment in a st

Transport committee  Yes, it is a significant change. We are suggesting not to exempt works that were created before the act was passed, but rather to exempt works created before the act was significantly applied. In fact, the vast majority of works on waterways that would today be regulated were ef

Transport committee  Correct.

Transport committee  Well, in fact we were fortunate, in that there was a Transportation Association of Canada meeting here in Ottawa just a few weeks ago, and that provided the opportunity for all these agencies to get together and to vet the proposition we put on the table. In fact the support was

Transport committee  I'm sure it is, but no, I don't have real numbers on that. You know the kinds of construction inflation costs we've been having, particularly in Alberta, in recent years. A delay of six months could easily add 20% to the cost of a project.

Transport committee  It's certainly one of the holdups. To be fair, it wasn't the only one.

Transport committee  No. I would just like to emphasize that any relief we can get in short order would be greatly appreciated.

Transport committee  I can. To answer your first question, I wish I could give you comprehensive numbers. I cannot. This sort of thing is difficult to sort out. In my position, I am often asked by my engineering friends how much all of this environmental and regulatory stuff is costing us. It's dif

Transport committee  I would suggest that Transport Canada and all provincial and federal government agencies are bound up. One of the other issues in Fort McMurray was that of aboriginal consultation. First nations consultation is a shifting legal ground. Nobody is quite sure what needs to be done.