First of all, Mr. Chair, I know you mentioned the Western Grain Elevator Association. For clarity, if I recall the testimony, I believe Mr. Sobkowich suggested that if it could be done in regulation, that would be fine by them. So to be clear on the representation by the Western Grain Elevator Association, I think that point has to be reiterated. You could check the Hansard on that, but I'm pretty certain he said that.
There are a lot of problems with this particular approach. I'm just trying to recall, Mr. Chair, from being part of the Bill C-52 debate....
Let me just start with one of the aspects, shipper paramountcy as opposed to the rail network. That is a problematic approach. For one, if I recall, the Supreme Court has been very clear that railway common carrier obligation is not an absolute, but it is circumstantial. So to be court compliant, there has to be some degree of flexibility with respect to the network as a consideration.
I don't know. I could probably go into a few more of the arguments that were raised back then, but stepping back from that, the approach that the government is taking with Bill C-30 is that issues around operational terms would be a regulatory approach. I appreciate that Mr. Eyking would prefer a prescriptive, legislated approach to that. The witnesses were mixed on the preference for that. We think we can achieve it with respect to the regulatory environment.
We've now, in terms of the earlier amendment, G-1, provided the teeth that they were looking for with respect to entering into service-level agreements. So I think between what will be achieved in the regulation and what is achieved in the legislation itself will be sufficient, and it's what the witnesses were requesting.
I think this reopens the debate that was made at the table with Bill C-52 at the transport committee, and it was rejected for a lot of very good reasons. But we think we can do adequately within the regulatory framework, rather than this.