Bill S-287
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- ENGLISH
- SUMMARY SUMMARY
- Short Title Short Title
- Canada Transportation Act Canada Transportation Act
- EXPLANATORY NOTES EXPLANATORY NOTES
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First Session, Forty-fourth Parliament, 70-71 Elizabeth II – 1-2 Charles III, 2021-2022-2023-2024 |
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SENATE OF CANADA |
An Act to amend the Canada Transportation Act (interswitching)
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FIRST READING, June 20, 2024
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THE HONOURABLE SENATOR Dagenais |
SUMMARY
This enactment provides for the repeal of certain provisions of the Canada Transportation Act concerning the extension of railway interswitching.
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Available on the Senate of Canada website at the following address: www.sencanada.ca/en |
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1st Session, 44th Parliament, 70-71 Elizabeth II – 1-2 Charles III, 2021-2022-2023-2024 |
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SENATE OF CANADA |
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BILL S-287 |
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An Act to amend the Canada Transportation Act (interswitching) |
Preamble
Whereas the Budget Implementation Act, 2023, No.1 amended the Canada Transportation Act to extend railway interswitching limits in the Prairies to 160 kilometres;
Whereas this measure was introduced for the first time in 2014 but was rescinded in 2017 in recognition of its intrusive, regionally uneven and anticompetitive effects and was replaced by long-haul interswitching, a remedy that remains available to Canadian shippers;
Whereas extended interswitching was reintroduced by the Budget Implementation Act, 2023, No.1 without consultation with railways and without any evidence that such an intervention in the market was necessary;
Whereas extended interswitching is a measure that incentivizes inefficient operations by transferring Canadian railway traffic to railways in the United States without reciprocity, thus reducing economic activity and investment in Canada and removing work from Canadian railway employees;
Whereas this measure does not adequately compensate railways for their services by prescribing a below-market, regulated rate while Canadian railways take on all their own expenses at commercial prices;
Whereas Canadian shippers already enjoy some of the lowest freight rates anywhere in the world;
And whereas extended interswitching must cease to apply immediately;
His Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate and House of Commons of Canada, enacts as follows:
Short Title
Short title
1 This Act may be cited as the Extended Interswitching Repeal Act.
1996, c. 10
Canada Transportation Act
2 Subsections 127(2.1) and (5) to (7) of the Canada Transportation Act are repealed.
3 Subsections 127.1(1.1), (4.1) and (6) of the Act are repealed.
4 Section 127.2 of the Act is repealed.
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Published under authority of the Senate of Canada
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EXPLANATORY NOTES
(2.1) If the point of origin or destination of a continuous movement of traffic is within a radius of 30 km of an interchange, the Agency may order
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(a) one of the companies to interswitch the traffic; and
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(b) the railway companies to provide reasonable facilities for the convenient interswitching of traffic in both directions at an interchange between the lines of either railway and those of other railway companies connecting with them.
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(5) If the point of origin or destination of a continuous movement of traffic is in whole or in part in Manitoba, Saskatchewan or Alberta and is located within a radius of 160 km of an interchange that is in whole or in part in Manitoba, Saskatchewan or Alberta but outside a radius of 30 km of the interchange, a railway company must not transfer the traffic at the interchange except in accordance with the regulations and the interswitching rate.
(6) When providing the Minister with information under regulations made under paragraph 50(1.01)(a), the Canadian National Railway Company and the Canadian Pacific Railway Company are also required to provide the Minister, in the same form and manner, with the following information with respect to any traffic that is moved by a railway car in order to permit the Minister to assess the effects of the application of subsections (2.1) and (5):
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(a) an indication as to whether the point of origin or destination of the movement of the railway car was located within a radius of 30 km of an interchange that is in whole or in part in Manitoba, Saskatchewan or Alberta;
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(b) an indication as to whether the point of origin or destination of the movement of the railway car was within a radius of 160 km of an interchange that is in whole or in part in Manitoba, Saskatchewan or Alberta but outside a radius of 30 km of the interchange;
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(c) an indication as to whether the railway car was moved by the railway company at the interswitching rate; and
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(d) if possible, an indication as to whether the railway car was moved by another railway company at the interswitching rate.
(7) On request, a railway company must provide to the Minister, in the form and manner specified by the Minister, any of the information or documents that have been provided to the Agency under section 128.1 in order to permit the Minister to assess the effects of the application of subsections (2.1) and (5).
(1.1) The Agency shall, no later than 90 days after the day on which this subsection comes into force, determine the rate per car to be charged for interswitching traffic within a zone that includes a point of origin or destination of a continuous movement of traffic that is located in whole or in part in Manitoba, Saskatchewan or Alberta and is within a radius of 160 km of an interchange that is in whole or in part in Manitoba, Saskatchewan or Alberta but outside a radius of 30 km of the interchange, for the calendar year in which this subsection comes into force.
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(4.1) The Agency shall, when it makes its determination under subsection (1.1), publish the method that it followed for determining the rate.
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(6) The Agency shall, no later than 90 days after the day on which this subsection comes into force, publish the rate determined under subsection (1.1) on its Internet site.
127.2 This section and subsections 127(2.1) and (5) to (7) and 127.1(1.1), (4.1) and (6) are repealed on the day that, in the 18th month after the month in which subsection 127(2.1) comes into force, has the same calendar number as the day on which that subsection 127(2.1) comes into force or, if that 18th month has no day with that number, the last day of that 18th month.