Charles Fitzpatrick (Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada)
Liberal
Hon. OHAS. FITZPATRICK (Minister of Justice).
This clause was introduced for the purpose of giving effect to an undertaking that was entered into by the govern rneut when the National Transcontinental Railway Act was under consideration. It was suggested that it would be possible for the Grand Trunk Railway and the Grand Trunk Pacific to enter into an arrangement by which the Grand Trunk Railway might divert all the traffic of the Grand Trunk Pacific down by way of North Bay, and that it would be impossible for the Railway Commissioners to exercise any control over it. It was argued at the time that under the different sections of the Railway Act (263, 266, 267 and 309) the Railway Commissioners would have the power to control such an arrangement. It was thought that these sections did not go quite far enough and were not quite clear enough, and in that view this amendment is introduced for the purpose of carrying out the undertaking that the Railway Commissioners would be given absolute power and control to investigate any traffic arrangement that might be made between the two companies.