Winnipeg Manitoba - Re: Regulatory Changes for Railways Are a Bad Idea (Think Tank, 19 June 2023)
 
Mr. Prentice describes interswitching regulation in a manner that is easy to understand.
 
Having Canadian goods shipped through Canada instead of the United States is a very important part of our economy.
 
The distance for railway companies to provide interswitching has quite a wide spread from 30 kilometres to 160 kilometres, and to this reader, I ask myself how was this differential arrived at by our national regulator?
 
I ask myself, what kind of interswitching effect does the recent purchase of Kansas City Rail by CP have on shipping rates and transportation of goods on the Asia Pacific Trade Corridor?
 
It seems to me that the CPKC will no longer have to deal with interswitching on north, south, east, and west rail corridors.
 
So, the former nationally owned CN seems to be in a much more precarious situation.
 
Ultimately, as a city councillor in Winnipeg, I am very concerned with what all these changes will have on the ability of our railways to stay in business and contribute to all the infrastructure needs this city has related to rail lines and yards.
 
My hope is the regulators are taking a much wider view of what regulation change can have on indirect outcomes on the economy and our built environment.
 
To me, rail is still a better environmental transportation system than our highways.
 
Coun. Ross Eadie Mynarski.