Transport committee  Any options...?

Transport committee  Right. Thank you for the question. It is something we are looking at with the provinces. We have a federal/provincial/territorial committee on trucking and highways. It is one of the issues that has been brought into that committee, and it's something that we are looking at currently.

Transport committee  Across departments, we do have our own working group committees on rail. There are individual committees within the departments, such as Natural Resources Canada, AgCan and Transport Canada, but we do come together as a group as well to talk, for example, about the commodity mix that's in the system and what's being forecast going forward, as well as some of the issues coming up, such as bottlenecks and planning going forward, how we can engage both the class one railways and the commodities to ensure that there's fluidity in the network, as well as issues coming up as we see things, such as oil on rail, so that we can bring those up within our respective departments, those issues that are bubbling up to the surface.

Transport committee  The major projects management office still exists, from my understanding. Again, it's out of my mandate as it's under the Natural Resources Canada mandate.

Transport committee  I'll start, and then if anybody else wants to, they can jump in. As projects come up, we actually develop working groups that include the different levels of government—federal, provincial and municipal. It is something we do take into consideration because every level of government has a role to play in those projects.

Transport committee  I can take that. My understanding with regard to the Gordie Howe Bridge is that it is continuing down the path toward construction. There was an announcement earlier this summer that they were getting into the design phase. Soon there will be an announcement about the design of the Gordie Howe Bridge.

Transport committee  I don't, off the top of my head. Again, I can go back and get that information.

Transport committee  Sure, I can handle that. It is something we do assess. We're looking at both the passenger and the freight rail systems and how they work together. As you mentioned, there are issues sometimes, given that the demand for both is increasing. It is something we assess as projects come in—on passenger rail, for example—in terms of how the balance between those two works out.

Transport committee  Again, that's an area I'm not responsible for, but I could go back and get that answer for you.

Transport committee  We're providing the information. That is not an area that I'm responsible for, but from our perspective, we provide that kind of objective information for consideration. It's not something I can comment on in terms of the safety and security side because that's not my area of responsibility.

Transport committee  I don't know.

Transport committee  Thank you for the question. From our perspective, one of the key things we are doing is monitoring the situation in terms of the statistics and the volumes. I know that Christian's group is reviewing a lot of the commodities that are on the rail network system. Part of that is monitoring what's happening going forward and being able to report in terms of how the mix of commodities is changing over time, and then thinking about what type of remedies we may need to put in place given the risks that may be coming up.

Transport committee  Good morning, everyone. My name is David McNabb. I am the director general for surface transportation policy, and I am responsible for policy development in the freight and passenger rail area, as well as highways, borders and motor carriers.