Transport committee  We spend a lot of time in the north talking to people there, and I have a long-standing bias that Canada has neglected the north. That bias remains today. I still do not think we pay enough attention to infrastructure in the north. I don't think we pay enough attention to the roa

Transport committee  A lot of the short-lines were kind of abandoned lines from the class 1 railways. When you look at the financial health of the short-line railways, they're pretty fragile, and they do not get the same kinds of tax benefits and advantages American short-lines get, for example. In

Transport committee  I think the own-motion power—with the premise that this power would require the agency to demonstrate there is reasonable and credible evidence that there is a problem that is not unique to one complainant, or that there are other systemic issues that are incipient or are about t

Transport committee  For sure. The truth of the matter, honourable members, is that we threw the cat amongst the pigeons with the airport authorities. They're very comfortable organizations these days, I have to say. They've mounted a very strenuous lobby campaign to basically argue that everything

Transport committee  I think it is a good thing that we have transcontinental railways, and I think some of the consolidation will be aimed at ensuring there are coast-to-coast high-speed, high-volume corridors. I think consolidation is probably in the interests of greater North American transportati

Transport committee  Well, I think it's a very important priority and should at least be part of the strategic thinking when it comes to the negotiations. Canada might want transportation as a sector specifically discussed at NAFTA. Whether you would get take-up on that from the Americans in particul

Transport committee  Well, we said in our report, and I said in my remarks, that the system today is so big and so complicated and so messy that keeping up with competitive conditions requires much more than a decennial review. There needs to be an evergreen process, I would argue, at least every two

Transport committee  Well, for anything, I believe, you need an infrastructure priority list, if you like, that is carefully thought through and analyzed, with a lot of the pre-engineering done, and a lot of the economics and financial dimensions, and some comprehensive assessment of risk. You need p

Transport committee  Could I just add something? I want to do two things. One, I want to answer a question you asked Mr. Streiner, that as long as you're restricting the CTA to dealing with issues on a “one complaint at a time” basis, frankly, you're never going to have enough resources to deal with

Transport committee  If you're referring to the 15% limitation on single-share ownership in CN, we didn't hear from anyone on that issue during the review process. I don't recall anyone advising us on that in our discussions, or receiving a submission on it.

Transport committee  You're referring to ownership of airlines, air carriers. Okay.

Transport committee  We received submissions verbally, particularly from some of the insipient operators or creators of ultra-low-cost carriers. We heard that they were having difficulty raising the kind of capital they needed to start low-cost carriers. We basically recommended something we thought

Transport committee  No.

Transport committee  Because I didn't see the bill, and I wasn't aware of its content, I really couldn't answer that. In principle, I think you make a good point.

Transport committee  For the benefit of other members, there is a restriction that is being altered—I don't know if it's through this legislation or another bill—that limits a single shareholder presently to 15% of the voting shares of CN. That is being raised to 25%, but the reality is that CP is no