Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The department did some clinical analysis looking at options when I became the Minister. I said to them, as I constantly say to them, we need to ensure that it is the politics of inclusion, not exclusion, and we need community and regional input into this very important transportation initiative. We had the meeting in the latter part of last year and I am confident, once I get the responses back from the communities, we will be able to meet as the project and the analysis that is being done moves forward. I want to ensure that I come back to the committee and back to the region and say "Is this the kind of thing that you want to do?" There would be an ongoing relationship between the working committee and the department as it progresses with its analysis of the options that this government must look at. The primary focus of this, of course, is to ensure and safeguard key transportation links with respect to marine shipping and to ensure that we are getting a good bang for our buck.
At the current time, I want to tell the honourable Member, it is being demonstrated to me that the costs out of Montreal are significantly less than the current costs we are paying. This is the early analysis, but that is where we currently stand. I want to assure the honourable Member that the region will be intimately involved in this entire exercise.