Agriculture committee  They are. They're comparing it to the history, though, just as you said, Mr. Hoback. They're comparing it to what they've done before. We've been complaining about rail service, which is in the “what they've done before” category for the last five years, so we're still not getting the capacity that we need.

Agriculture committee  So you're giving me the opportunity to answer. Is that what's happening?

Agriculture committee  I'll start, and then I'll ask my colleagues to jump in. Hi, Mr. Hoback. It's Wade Sobkowich here again, with the WGEA. When the Wheat Board monopoly was in place, they were involved in grain logistics and they planned logistics for wheat and barley. The grain companies planned logistics for other crops, like oilseeds, flax, pulse crops, etc.

Agriculture committee  I just wanted to add that when we talked to the railway companies about the capacity that they're providing for the grain industry, they tend to look at past capacity and say they're doing well, and if you compare it to past capacity, they are. What we would like to see them do more of is compare the capacity that they're providing to the demand, and we are well short of that.

Agriculture committee  You wanted a brief answer, correct?

Agriculture committee  Sorry; I'm going on and on.

Agriculture committee  Did that answer your question?

Agriculture committee  My name is Wade Sobkowich, and I'm with the Western Grain Elevator Association. I've been talking a lot about the railcar capacity lately, in the media and to anybody who will listen. The problem we're seeing is one with two different factors. It's supply of railcar capacity versus demand for railcar capacity, given the size of the crop.

Agriculture committee  They disagreed with the idea of inserting that in the legislation or in the bill, but they had agreed on May 5 to the idea of the review and to doing it within six months after the passage of the bill.

Agriculture committee  I'm sorry, they disagreed with what?

Agriculture committee  I can respond to that. What happened was that the minister invited CN to go back to their customers with some sort of commercial solution, and CN met with a number of the different associations that were part of this coalition with a proposed framework for commercial dispute resolution.

Agriculture committee  I agree with you that farmers shouldn't have to pay for those costs when there are service deficiencies in the country. We think that's what demurrage is for. Demurrage should be taken and used to make sure the railways can fulfil their commitments in the country.

Agriculture committee  May I answer Mr. Atamanenko's question?

Agriculture committee  Yes, relative to the last comments, we're interested in improving that number. Another measure of performance is cycle times. We know that cycle times are around 18 days. Recently, I think, they've gone down to 17.7 or something like that, so that's an indication of efficiency.

Agriculture committee  As you know, we appeared before the committee here in September and expressed our views on the COMPAS report in its entirety. We support the recommendations—not all of them, but most. We think they are necessary changes. Without getting into too much detail, we support them. In particular we support the idea that Mr.