After just four sessions and eight hours, the House of Commons transport committee has ended public hearings on government rail service legislation and will begin final detail discussions next week.
With brief committee discussion likely, the bill could be back to the House of Commons for final debate during the last week of March.
On March 21 once MPs return from this week’s March break from Parliament Hill, they will begin clause-by-clause consideration of bill C-52, the Fair Rail Freight Service Act.
It would give shippers the right to appeal to the Canadian Transportation Agency for an arbitrated level-of-service agreement with a rail carrier if negotiations do not produce an agreement.
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Railways would face penalties for breaches of their service obligations.
After a session with transport minister Denis Lebel who said it puts shippers in “the driver’s seat”, two hours with shippers who support the bill but want it strengthened, two hours with railways that want it scrapped or at least weakened and two hours with port authorities somewhere in the middle, the committee has decided it has enough public input.
They will hear from Transport Canada officials one more time March 21 and then start clause-by-clause consideration aiming to get the bill back to the Commons for final debate and quick passage to the Senate.
Opposition MPs plan to propose some of the shipper amendments including the right of an arbitrator to award damages to a shipper for breach of service and not just a fine that goes to government coffers.
However, the Conservative majority does not have a track record of accepting opposition amendments in this Parliament and Conservative MP comments during the hearings suggested they believe the bill is a balance between shipper and carrier interests with the power leaning to shippers.
Acceptance of amendments is unlikely.
Meanwhile, Canada’s two national railways, supported by a representative of some short-line railways, last week used their two hours at committee to condemn the legislation as unnecessary and intrusive.
They called for Bill C-52 approved in principle by the House of Commons to be shelved or at least amended to reduce some of the shipper powers proposed.
In a presentation to the Commons transport committee March 5, representatives of CN, CP and the short-line operator Cando Contracting Ltd. said the legislation is unnecessary.
“Our advice to this committee (is) that you recommend to the House of Commons that the bill not proceed,” Railway Association of Canada president Michael Bourque told MPs.
But if the legislation does move forward, he said the rail industry wants amendments that would reduce proposed shipper powers including a proposal that an arbitrator have the right to assess payment to shippers for failure to meet level-of-service contract obligations.
Bourque said the railways have improved service and a legislative hammer is not needed.
“Railways are doing exactly what you would hope, increasing their productivity, keeping freight rates low, enabling the competitiveness of Canadian manufacturers and producers and indeed the whole supply chain, winning investor confidence, making money and reinvesting in the network,” he argued.
