Transport committee  That's correct—in parts.

Transport committee  That's right, and I would have to assume it's for a variety of reasons. One of those reasons might be cost.

Transport committee  I can't speak to that.

Transport committee  I can't speak to the durability of the current use. I can only say that when we looked at Japan, which is one of the first countries in the world to build high-speed trains, they started with the old technology, as I understand it, and today they are using concrete slabs.

Transport committee  Off the top of my head, I don't know, but I can get it for you.

Transport committee  I'll get you that information.

Transport committee  There aren't any done by Canadians, but there are by the Japanese and Europeans. I'll do my best to get you some exact excerpts from those studies.

Transport committee  I'm not from the airline industry or from VIA Rail, so I can't comment on that.

Transport committee  I first wanted to say, in response to Mr. Laframboise's question on the weather patterns, that for concrete roads, second only to Ontario is Manitoba, with the work that's being done on the perimeter of concrete highways in Manitoba. With so many Manitobans around the table, I th

Transport committee  But standards are standards. I am sure that people want to go back and talk about Canada not being Japan. In Europe today we're incorporating 35% limestone in the cement, which means we're saving over 30% of greenhouse gases because we don't have to use fossil fuels at the start

Transport committee  For the last 30 years. And it's my understanding, to the best of my knowledge, that today concrete slabs are being used for the construction of high-speed rail for the bullet trains.

Transport committee  In certain parts, they are. Again, a lot of this depends on costing, but certainly the research we've done in preparation for coming here today indicates that this is a viable technology and that it's being slowly adopted around the world, just as uses for concrete in many projec

Transport committee  I would say we are probably more than self-sufficient to meet this demand. In Ontario we export between 30% and 40% of our cement across the Great Lakes to the United States. You have to understand that there are not too many cement plants, as they are traditionally located on a

Transport committee  I'm not sure of the information he gave you, but our biggest problem in British Columbia is the Asian imports to Canada. We have three plants: Kamloops, Richmond, and Delta. We export 40% to 50% of our cement to the United States today and have done so over the last five years.

Transport committee  We've all driven on Highway 40 or on the Autoroute Ville-Marie and we know what asphalt is like, don't we? I can tell you that concrete highways are the way of the future. In Toronto, for example, Highway 407 is completely concrete. The Queen Elizabeth Way is completely concrete