Transport committee  And part of the interswitching was to mitigate a supply problem that there was, to bring more supply, specifically targeted at grain. There's not a supply issue on the east coast or even in central Canada from what we can determine.

Transport committee  We don't base the rate on commercial rates. First off, there is no one commercial rate, there are all kinds of contracts that go back and forth, and price is determined on a transaction-by-transaction basis. These are effectively shipping contracts between a shipper and a carrier

Transport committee  It's very difficult for us to get information on rates, because, as I indicated, we're talking talking about commercial rates and that's proprietary information, that's tort law, that's a contract between parties, and we don't have access to private information like that. We do g

Transport committee  —and other commodities.

Transport committee  Again, I would caution, we have 16 shippers that we're making this inference on. When we break it up and analyze it based upon 10-kilometre distances, we're in a world where we have, quite frankly, a handful at any one particular.... I would be very cautious in drawing definitive

Transport committee  It's a difficult question for us, and it's a difficult question because you're right in the heart of Transport Canada's mandate. The Minister of Transport is in the process of responding to not only that recommendation, but a whole host of them. There's a process that's in place.

Transport committee  The only way I would be able to comfortably address that is if I had empirical evidence to substantiate it. We have had anecdotes. As far as the hard data, there's not enough to really make a determination on this—a fair determination. Secondly, what we're hearing anecdotally i

Transport committee  Right. If I can, I'll just talk a bit about the CTA review. The data they were using was not based upon 2015, because the data hadn't come in yet for 2015. Looking at what was available in 2014, I think we had in the neighbourhood of six shippers that utilized the interswitchin

Transport committee  The only formal input we have to the minister is through our annual report. The chair makes operational recommendations on how the act can be better used, as you will, and that's done annually.

Transport committee  That will be a decision at the end of the day that the government takes. It's a policy decision. Our input will be from our observations that we get from operationalizing the regulations in the act. The other opportunity we have to provide input into that type of process is thr

Transport committee  Canada is a little bit unique in terms of our rail structure to start with because we do have the presence of, at best, an oligopoly; there are just two railways. In general, the U.S. is much more competitive for rail. That’s why I indicated at the outset that we as an agency o

Transport committee  In 2013, when we went out and we consulted during the RIAS process, we undertook extensive consultations to try to fill the information gap because we didn't have the hard data. That was unprecedented in terms of the number of consultations and the amount of time we spent consult

Transport committee  Europe is a little bit different as well because the majority of their rail is passenger related and not freight related. The other thing, just building on Fred's point, is there's no other country that's as dependent on the rail system, for the movement of freight, as Canada. Ab

Transport committee  It's very much supply chain driven now; the world where you have discrete points. To be perfectly blunt, if I can move my grain from point A to point B on rail and it gets stuck at the port or it gets stuck at an elevator or a ship in waiting, I don't know how that's helpful. It'

Transport committee  When we did this as well, we undertook extensive consultations with shippers. As Fred said, we didn't do a line, we actually did a circle. We did the circle around the interchange points and we determined that there would be over 80% coverage, in some instances 85%...that you,