Presentations of McMillan’s Rail Group at the Canadian Transportation Research Forum

Presentations of McMillan’s Rail Group at the Canadian Transportation Research Forum

McMillan’s rail transportation group frequently act as experts and speakers at the Canadian Transportation Research Forum, one of the most important forums in Canada for transportation professionals. Founded in 1965, the forum brings together experts from railways, airlines, ports, government agencies, consultants, and academia to foster collaboration and innovation in the industry.

This year, our lawyers discussed various topics at the 59^th Annual Proceedings of the Canadian Transportation Research Forum:

Consequences or conjectures: the impact of extending railway interswitching limits
By Lucia Stuhldreier, Ryan Gallagher and François Tougas

• Canada recently extended interswitching limits in the three Prairie Provinces from 30 km to 160 km. This extension sparked debate about the role of competitive access in modern Canadian rail policy, with some commentators suggesting that regulated interswitching is damaging to Canada’s supply chains. In this paper, we examine some of the recent predictions in the light of publicly available data related to a similar extension from 2014 to 2017 and conclude that the available data offers little if any evidence of the alleged threats posed by extended regulated interswitching. Read it here.

Yours or mine: A history of interswitching in Canada
By Conner Wylie and Lucia Stuhldreier

• In discussing the role and future of regulated interswitching, it is common for commentators and stakeholders to portray the history of regulated interswitching in a manner that supports their position on modern policy. In this paper, we examined the significant judgments, orders, legislation, and regulations that shaped the history of regulated interswitching in order to examine the historical development of the practice. Read it here.

Setting the record straight: FAIR Rail Coalition’s response to public claims and analyses regarding international rail freight rate comparisons
By Ryan Gallagher, Lucia Stuhldreier and François Tougas

• In early 2023, the Railway Association of Canada published a report prepared by CPCS entitled “International Comparison of Railway Freight Rates”, which compares rail freight revenues and volumes in Canada to other jurisdictions. In response, the Coalition for the Factual Analysis of International Rail Rates engaged several recognized experts to assess the CPCS report’s methodology and findings and published a report in response (FAIR Response). This paper seeks to highlight certain of the most critical findings of the FAIR Response. Read it here.

Plenary Session: Mobilizing the Transportation Sector for Economic Prosperity

• Moderated by Mark Hemmes, Quorum Corporation
• Panelists François Tougas, McMillan LLP; Shaun Stevenson, Port of Prince Rupert Authority; Cecilia Lei, Transport Canada
• Presentation available upon request