Transport committee  Our recommendation in the report was to, over the next few decades, allow VIA, for example, to invest in its own roadbed. One of the real barriers to an efficient passenger rail system is the requirement to use the same tracks that the freight trains use, which creates scheduling

Transport committee  Yes, and I'll let Murad, who's an expert on this, speak to that.

Transport committee  The answer is yes.

Transport committee  The short answer is money. The long answer is this. When I was in government, I was minister for international trade with added responsibility for the Asia-Pacific gateways and corridors initiative. In our report we have noted that other countries in the world looked at what we

Transport committee  Yes. For me, that body would be mandated under a revised Canada Transportation Act, and there would be a Canadian transportation and logistics strategy that would be evergreened.

Transport committee  It was which investments are actually going to improve Canada's trade performance that was the guiding factor. We had recommended in the report that there be a very close collaboration between the Minister of Transport and the minister of—I don't know what it's called today; it u

Transport committee  Rather than the decennial review that we've just undertaken, there should be virtually an ongoing at least annual review, but first you need a strategy to review—

Transport committee  —and you need to develop a strategy. I think federal infrastructure funding can be used to leverage local decision-making to make the decisions that are good for the national system and good for the local community.

Transport committee  Money does it. Money gives you the leverage, and the strategy gives you the guideposts.

Transport committee  That's a fair comment, although I don't like the idea, because there are other shippers out there who have an equally legitimate claim for special treatment and they're not getting it.

Transport committee  Well, aerospace is a whole separate report that I was involved in a couple of years ago. I guess I'll just make a couple of comments. One is that we need to continue to make it a national industrial priority. Regarding space in particular, Canada has been a leader in space for

Transport committee  Yes.

Transport committee  It's always possible. The question is money and having the corridor or the land to do it. We actually gave some radical thought to really dramatically different models of building and operating railways, and we looked around the world at different countries and the way they do it

Transport committee  No. I think what is clear, and it's articulated in the report, is that Canadian agriculture in particular, but I would also argue that Canadian bulk cargo, travels a longer distance to get to tidewater than in most other competing jurisdictions like Australia, the U.S., or elsewh

Transport committee  In the report, we were quite emphatic that the transportation system, first off, is a system. It's a very complex system with many moving parts, many different companies and players involved. The grain system is no different. On the grain side, we argue in the report that we ne