Transport committee  I didn't really have an opportunity to say whether I'd come back or not. I was just agreeing with Mr. Hardie. I'd certainly come back, and it won't cost the taxpayers tens of thousands of dollars. I live in Wakefield, and I'm not even charging for parking.

Transport committee  No. My assumption is that there are Ministry of Transport officials in the room, and even though it might be the normal process to propose legislation first and then hear from the public, I assume they're taking input from this process.

Transport committee  As I said in my opening remarks, I would do away with the schedules and have the provisions of the act apply to all bodies of water in Canada, and resource the Department of Transport accordingly to undertake those responsibilities.

Transport committee  I wouldn't think that any paddlers would look to Paddle Canada to make complaints or to provide information on that. That's not our mission. The answer is no, I'm not aware personally of any complaints or litigation from paddlers. Anecdotally, I know that paddlers talk about da

Transport committee  Could I add—

Transport committee  What was your question, Mr. Rayes?

Transport committee  Yes, of course it's surprising. I think there are three lakes: Lac Memphrémagog, Lac Saint-Jean, and Lac des Deux-Montagnes. There are only a few rivers: the Richelieu, the Saint-Maurice, the Ottawa, and of course, the St. Lawrence. Yes, it's surprising. Did you want to know wh

Transport committee  I would add that, in 2009, it was obvious that Transport Canada had a huge backlog of applications and complaints, enforcement actions, and so forth. At the time, when I was at the Treasury Board and we used to do these things, I estimated that they would need somewhere between s

Transport committee  I'd certainly like to undertake that rather than try to fulfill that at the moment, if I could respond.

Transport committee  Before I cut down the length of my speech, I put in a little joke about maybe adding to the long-form census a question about how many people own or paddle canoes or kayaks. I did have an estimate from the executive director of Paddle Canada that it might be 15 million. I think

Transport committee  I'm not at all familiar with that legislation. As I said, I'm not an expert in environmental assessment—I'm a volunteer on the board—but that sounds like a reasonable approach to me. When I recommended that Transport Canada could develop a streamlined regime of approving applic

Transport committee  I would say some of our members are definitely concerned about issues such as the energy east pipeline and going through waters that are not on the schedules and therefore not subject to environmental review. There's no question about that. A couple of weeks ago, I was up at the

Transport committee  The previous questioner, the member, referred to the environmental protections of the act, which are no longer present. Previously, if a major work—a bridge, a dam, a boom, a causeway—were to be proposed to be constructed over a navigable waterway, it automatically triggered an e

Transport committee  To be very blunt, I think those are intellectually and morally bankrupt concepts. If it's a right, it's a right that the government should ensure on behalf of all Canadians.

Transport committee  No.