Agriculture committee  They didn't talk about grain at all in their replies, so it was basically business as usual. This is how they were reacting to it. It was not specific to agriculture or grain, which is.... I think they missed the mark on it. To answer your question, when we get Bill C-49 passed—not “if” we get it passed—it will enable a lot of us to do a lot more things to the railways to hold them accountable.

Agriculture committee  That's how they treat Alberta. They're closer, so they'll do cycle times quickly. Then they'll empty out Saskatchewan. In Manitoba, we actually go through the St. Lawrence Seaway a lot. Sixty percent of our product goes from Manitoba that way. It's interesting. The railways have got it figured out, but if things go really badly, they empty out Alberta first—probably southern Alberta, not northern Alberta.

Agriculture committee  That was planned shipment, so that's correct. Here is what happens if they don't get them when they order them. The boat is sitting out there, and they said they wanted them in week one, week two, or whatever. They don't show up until the next week, so then they have more orders.

Agriculture committee  There is no silver bullet. It will go a long way in fixing a lot of things, modern-day things. We've dismantled the Wheat Board. In some way they did control the flow of grain. They bought it differently, as Mr. Ritz alluded to earlier today. Things flowed differently in Canada.

Agriculture committee  We did have the solutions back in 2013-14, and we talked about giving the agency more power to be more proactive, which is the word we're all looking for, I think, instead of reactive. As long as the railway companies are focusing on stockholders' share, we're all going to lose.

Agriculture committee  They are coming to everybody and saying that this is the infrastructure that we're putting in. They know they have some choke points. In Vancouver, I know that they talk about the bridge going over the water and the other one up to Prince Rupert. They know they have some pretty vulnerable spots.

Agriculture committee  They have to start talking to our shippers and our grain buyers. They have to understand what they go through. We've all locked in to next year's price. We've probably got 20% of our product locked in for next fall already. Railways don't get that. We are different in agriculture.

Agriculture committee  It's interesting. If we don't get rid of the backlog, what's going to happen in either August or September is that we're going to have to build more bins and have more debt, but we're not going to be able to pay bills. They can defer the interest from those actual payments. I think they can do that.

Agriculture committee  It's quite interesting. In late 2014, we established the Ag Transport Coalition. That was the first time we had a window into what the shippers were actually requesting, into the demand. We were told at that time, and it went on for a couple of years, that they make up a plan. It starts in June, July, when we're going to sow our crops.

Agriculture committee  But they cut back way too much on their capital. They cut back on their staffing and on their power.

Agriculture committee  Giving the CTA more power to investigate beforehand is a key. I think that's probably the amendment to make the biggest fundamental change in how we look at this.

Agriculture committee  Yes.

Agriculture committee  In 2013-14, they cut back too much. At CP at that time, there was a fellow named Hunter Harrison. He started the whole process of making sure that their capital was utilized to the utmost. That changed the way railways use their capital and their investment, but it was at the cost of service.

Agriculture committee  We're 28,000 cars behind. To fix this, the plan in October was 5,000 cars per week. We're going to be 500 cars per week over, 1,000 cars per week over. That's 5,500 to 6,000 cars that they can do for the next however many weeks until August. I don't know. Is there enough room on our farms to accept the new crop?

Agriculture committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair and members of the committee, for having me here today to speak about this important issue in the grain transportation system. My name is Dan Mazier. I'm the President of Keystone Agriculture Producers, which is Manitoba's general farm policy organization representing over 7,000 farm families.