Thursday, May 10, 2018

The Standing Senate Committee on Transport and Communications has the honour to present its

ELEVENTH REPORT

Your committee, which was authorized by the Senate on May 9, 2018, to draw up reasons for the Senate’s insistence on its amendments 7(c) and 8 to Bill C-49, An Act to amend the Canada Transportation Act and other Acts respecting transportation and to make related and consequential amendments to other Acts, now recommends:

That the reasons for the Senate’s insistence on its amendment 7(c) be:

“because all regions of Canada should be treated equally, with fairness and respect. The House of Commons rejected the Senate amendment “because shippers in the Maritimes will continue to have access to other shipper remedies in the Act”. As the proposer of the Senate amendment pointed out in committee, this is unfair for the maritime region, since there are roads and therefore other modes of transportation in areas like Prince Rupert and northern Quebec where an exemption is provided.”; and

That the reasons for the Senate’s insistence on its amendment 8 be:

“because this amendment entitles a shipper to obtain a determination of the railway’s cost of transporting its goods to assist an arbitrator in final offer arbitration to determine whether to select the offer of the carrier or the shipper. By declaring that final offer arbitration is a commercially based process and not cost-based, the House of Commons has removed that entitlement from the shipper;”.

Respectfully submitted,