> If it specifies track length they will just build track that long, if it specifies minimum geographic distance they will find a further port.
I wonder what the law would have to say to produce the legislators' intended result. Possibly they could require companies to define, for each journey:
* Point A - the average(?) location of where the fish are caught, and
* Point B - the average(?) location where the fish are sold to the public or stored (for the majority of the time they are stored).
Then there could be some requirement that there be two points, C and D, with the following properties:
* the fish pass through points C and D on their way from point A to point B,
* points C and D are on the main Canadian rail network (such that most rail track in Canada can be reached by a train starting at point C or point D),
* the minimum rail distance between points C and D is some percentage P of the straight line distance between A and B, and
* the fish travel only by rail between points C and D.
The precise value of "P" would have to be chosen by looking at examples of intended paths and thinking of possible unintended paths.
I wonder what the law would have to say to produce the legislators' intended result. Possibly they could require companies to define, for each journey:
* Point A - the average(?) location of where the fish are caught, and
* Point B - the average(?) location where the fish are sold to the public or stored (for the majority of the time they are stored).
Then there could be some requirement that there be two points, C and D, with the following properties:
* the fish pass through points C and D on their way from point A to point B,
* points C and D are on the main Canadian rail network (such that most rail track in Canada can be reached by a train starting at point C or point D),
* the minimum rail distance between points C and D is some percentage P of the straight line distance between A and B, and
* the fish travel only by rail between points C and D.
The precise value of "P" would have to be chosen by looking at examples of intended paths and thinking of possible unintended paths.