Agriculture committee  Mr. Chairman, do I have the floor or does Mr. Hoback have the floor?

Agriculture committee  One comment I'd like to make is that in the whole issue--

Agriculture committee  --cost and service--

Agriculture committee  --are two separate issues.

Agriculture committee  Cost and service are two separate issues. I hear it being suggested--

Agriculture committee  Let me finish. Let me have the floor, unless you want to have another question.

Agriculture committee  That's right--

Agriculture committee  I think the legislation should be amended so that there would be regular costing reviews as part of the revenue cap formula.

Agriculture committee  We have raised the issue of a costing review with a number of elected officials. Minister Ritz initially was supportive. We have also met with Minister Strahl. His answer was that “when you get support from Minister Ritz perhaps we can look at a costing review“, but the answer ha

Agriculture committee  A costing review would certainly reveal whether our numbers are reasonable or correct. We believe they are. This is the second time we've had Mr. Edsforth look at rail costing. This last report is actually an update of that. That's something a costing review would certainly revea

Agriculture committee  Yes, that's right.

Agriculture committee  There's really no mechanism there for those efficiency gains to be passed back to farmers. In the previous system, where we had regular costing reviews, the railways were allowed to keep those efficiencies for four years. Then there would be a costing review and those efficiencie

Agriculture committee  That's right.

Agriculture committee  Thank you, Humphrey. As Humphrey said, my name is Allen Oberg. My brother and I run a grain and cattle operation near Forestburg, Alberta. I have been a member of the Canadian Wheat Board's farmer-elected board since 2002 and was elected chairman of that board this past June.