Agriculture committee  To some degree, there is that.... In the post Bill C-30 environment from several years ago, the government struck the commodity supply chain table, which semi-annually brings together all parties—railways, shippers of all commodities, including grains—to that table to talk about forecasting, growth, and near-term and longer-term issues.

Agriculture committee  Very quickly, my comment about Vancouver.... The next thing for us to be thinking about long term is that last mile. You have the grain companies putting in their investments. You have the railways. Then you have some incremental things going on there for fluidity and some capacity expansion through the gateway collaborative partnership, which received money from the national transportation corridor fund this May or June.

Agriculture committee  I'll speak quickly to your question. We all know this, but we just need to remain cognizant that we're still in the early shadows and aftermath of Bill C-49. It only received royal assent on May 23. August 1 is the start of the grain year that all of the planning and reporting goes into.

Agriculture committee  That is one of the positive silver linings of 2013-14 and the Bill C-30, the Bill C-49. I think the kind of communication and information sharing is on a new level, a new playing field, but certainly there's always room for incremental improvement.

Agriculture committee  Yes. I was not there personally, but it's a timely question because they literally just got back from that last week. They were over there. Japan has been the longest, most consistent buyer of Canadian canola seed for decades—consistently two million tonnes, every year. My understanding of the situation is that the good-news story that the Canadian government and exporters have been able to tell those customers has rebuilt some of the confidence that was shaken by the situation five years ago.

Agriculture committee  I will take that one first. On reciprocal penalties, I think there are two things to think about. For instance, the railways will say that a very high percentage of the current traffic falls under reciprocal penalties. They are talking about a per car debit/credit. I'm not speaking for the grain companies, obviously, but I think their conception is bigger.

Agriculture committee  That is today's example of a game-changer, introducing a step function change in the supply chain. Certainly I think we need to bear in mind that the history of western Canadian grain has been that of an evolution, going from several 1,000-odd wooden cribs, then in the seventies and eighties moving toward the high throughput concrete elevators, and now that loop track with high throughput elevators.

Agriculture committee  I'd say, yes. We'll mention quickly just some credit to the railways. They did reach out proactively to the grains sector and we discussed as a group, and then independently with people, about what should be in the reports. They did incorporate some of the suggestions of the grains sector, meaning from farm to shippers.

Agriculture committee  Sure. I guess again, similar to the quantification question, on the delayed harvest issue and, again, the breadth of western Canada's geography, in some areas certainly there have been serious problems and some folks were getting ready for a dire outcome, which didn't happen. Then in other areas it was fairly normal, such as in southern Manitoba versus northern Alberta.

Agriculture committee  To your question on the quantification of backlogs, it is very difficult. As you can appreciate, there are 50,000 independent economic actors out there in the sector. Typically in any given year there is often sliding. You might have a contract for date X but it slides by four or five weeks in any given year just in terms of matching the product and pulling it into the supply chain.

Agriculture committee  Good morning, Chair, and members of the committee. I'm Steve Pratte, Policy Manager at the Canadian Canola Growers Association. Thank you for inviting the CCGA here this morning to discuss our perspective on grain movement this year. The Canadian Canola Growers Association is a national association governed by a board of farmer directors.

Transport committee  It actually is in the fact that—again, it was talked about briefly yesterday—the age of the currently owned public fleet, which is that amalgam of the federal government's fleet and that of the two provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan, which purchased in the mid seventies, early eighties.

Transport committee  Yes. From a producer's perspective, we would defer to our shippers, and you would have heard their testimony yesterday as far as their perspectives on that go. Because of, as Mr. Froese mentioned, the nature of the structure of our industry, if it's good for them and that fluidity is maintained and they can access those markets and that competition, in economic theory, it's good for that producer as well.

Transport committee  Correct.

Transport committee  As we heard from the witness from the Western Canadian Short Line Railway Association yesterday, we see in the grain sector that, when viable, the short-lines play a very prominent role in that kind of collection system of grain, from country, from lesser used lines historically, and can act as quite a funnel for grain into the main line system of the class Is hook and haul.