Agriculture committee  I have no real information about the cost of maintaining these sites. I really don't know the answer to that. The issue seems to be between different points of view. On the one hand you have CN coming at this from a seemingly commercial point of view, while on the other hand you

Agriculture committee  On the point about the grain companies, I honestly don't know the answer to it. However, it may be that if a producer has to go a longer distance, then it may simply be more convenient to go to a local grain company rather than a longer distance to a site, so there could be an

Agriculture committee  We don't doubt the statistics provided by CN. From our point of view, the issue is that the more you take away producer sites in an environment where farmers are continuing to load greater numbers of producer cars, the more you basically limit the opportunity for farmers in the f

Agriculture committee  The Canadian Wheat Board always looks to have programs that are useful for farmers. We recognize that in some cases programs are difficult to manage or are ones that farmers don't find as useful. We will always be looking to have the best quality PPO programs we possibly can. W

Agriculture committee  There are a lot of aspects that you've just talked about there. When you go back to the informal study, we do have a very big difference of opinion on that. We have put out on our website our own--

Agriculture committee  The Gibson people?

Agriculture committee  Certainly not. I don't understand that at all. The Wheat Board has said that you can't draw some of the comparisons they've made. A lot of the comparisons they've made have been incorrect, and we have pointed those out. But I do think it is important to have a proper study done

Agriculture committee  With respect, I think it is a different question. Permit book holders for the Wheat Board are compelled to supply their wheat and barley to the Wheat Board, so it is not a voluntary choice by them. But there are a large number of those. I have to say that in terms of the survey

Agriculture committee  Maybe you should ask him.

Agriculture committee  I think the issue is that in a deregulated environment certain farmers who are close to domestic markets or who have particular qualities of grain may be able to get a better premium or a better price than the collective. The system that we have in western Canada of a single-de

Agriculture committee  The contingency fund is a fund that's set up to absorb the pluses and minuses associated with a range of things, but primarily associated with the risk management of producer payment options. This fund has been in positive territory. It reached its cap some years ago in positive

Agriculture committee  There have been attempts to meet. I think there have been some scheduling issues in recent times. We are now looking for a further time to meet, but we haven't had one at this stage.

Agriculture committee  No.

Agriculture committee  Certainly.

Agriculture committee  I think I've explained it fairly well so far. There is no question that there were some issues associated with that particular market circumstance and they were addressed. On the question of Gibson Capital, we took an honest view that we needed to find an expert firm in this fie