Agriculture committee  To get to the heart of the question, I think the $100,000 penalty is probably light in the grand scheme of things, but the railways have shown that they're starting to comply with the order since it was passed on March 7, so I think that's a positive move. Again, we're after the

Agriculture committee  Good afternoon. Thank you for inviting the Western Grain Elevator Association to appear. We appreciate the support of the federal government in attempting to address the serious rail capacity issues the grain industry has faced this year. Bill C-30 sets out a framework for rail

Agriculture committee  I'll start once again. The 51,000 cars do not refer to physical cars that exist but to the number of orders that have been placed that haven't been filled, so it's important to be clear on what the 51,000 cars represents. The railways have cut back on crews, they've cut back on

Agriculture committee  I might as well stay with the current process and answer first here. Farmers...[Technical difficulty--Editor]...to maintain cool and dry conditions for their product that's protected by the elements, so that...[Technical difficulty--Editor]...tries to preserve as much quality as

Agriculture committee  Sure. John said it and Levi said it. The only thing I would add is that with the Wheat Board in place, we were running two logistic systems: one for wheat, and one for all other commodities. It got awkward when you had two logistic systems that sometimes tripped over each other.

Agriculture committee  I'll start. Thanks for the question. First of all, I should point out that we have a grain monitor, who does measure certain things in the grain industry that we find very valuable, so there are some measurements in place but you can't have too much good information. The more i

Agriculture committee  Just like Greg said, it would have made a devastating situation catastrophic. We are 4.6 million tonnes behind in shipping; we're 51,000 railcars behind in shipping. It would have amplified the current problems we're experiencing. Again, it would have made a devastating situation

Agriculture committee  Perhaps I could start again. They're moving about 5% less than last year at the same time, but our crop is 33% larger. The railways don't do demand forecasting, so they don't size their capacity to take into account the size of the crop, and therein lies the problem.

Agriculture committee  Yes, I think that's one thing that should be looked at. There isn't one silver bullet here. We could make a whole list of changes to the Canada Transportation Act, but I don't view those as short-term solutions. Those are on a medium- to longer-term track. But, yes, ideally we w

Agriculture committee  Maybe I'll start, and let Greg and John jump in if they want. Thanks for the question. We think added competition is ideally the solution that you would want in an ideal world. The problem is this. How do you get to effective competition, given the structure of the system? When

Agriculture committee  No, I was just looking to Greg or John to see if they wanted to add more to my response.

Agriculture committee  Unfortunately, we find ourselves in a situation without any regulatory levers today. Really, the only tool that's available to us is to file a level of service complaint with the agency. Unfortunately, that's after the fact, so the problem has to have already occurred, the damage

Agriculture committee  Yes, I will. Can you hear me all right?

Agriculture committee  Thanks for giving the WGEA the opportunity to appear before you. We're going to focus our opening comments on the general state of grain logistics today. As Greg mentioned, total railcar shortfall is at an unprecedented level of 51,000 railcars. This represents 4.6 million to

Agriculture committee  I think one thing we've been asking the government for, for a long time, is reciprocal penalties with the railways. That's something that can flow through the system. If we can receive penalties from the railways for their failure to provide railcars and spot them in a timely way