Transport committee  We do all sorts of mediations, most of them through the agency mediation service, which has proven to be excellent. I think our success rate is somewhere about 98% on those mediations, and both parties walk away satisfied. Those can be done extremely cheaply, so there have been

Transport committee  May I make one additional comment in response to that?

Transport committee  When one looks at the legislative summary that accompanies Bill C-8, clause 3 deals with incidental or ancillary charges not directly related to the movement of traffic, such as demurrage. So really, I think all we're saying is that the intent expressed in that summary should be

Transport committee  Let me just say, first of all, if there is a contract and the contract contains specific terms and conditions about when traffic is to be delivered, then there may in fact be a variety of different guarantee payments. Typically, however, the way the railways operate is they don't

Transport committee  I'm sorry if I wasn't clear. My last example related to grain shipments, whereas you asked about grain shippers. Typically, very few farmers ship grain directly, so we deal with the grain shipping companies: Viterra—which used to be the Saskatchewan Wheat Pool—and Agricore Unit

Transport committee  That's in a tariff.

Transport committee  To be clear, though, the discontinuance process is the same; it's just the $10,000 a month for three years that is different.

Transport committee  May I comment on that last point, because I do understand exactly what you're saying. I'll make two comments about it. First of all, there is currently in legislation a provision for an expedited FOA that would be lower cost. That's in there for claims of smaller amounts, and we

Transport committee  Final-offer arbitration has been in existence for many years, and we've gone through some final-offer arbitration cases. Generally, rather than proposing final-offer arbitration, which we see as not being a terribly satisfactory approach to things, our approach has been to sugges

Transport committee  It doesn't.

Transport committee  Some of the FOAs and disputes that we've been involved in have been with shippers that absolutely dwarfed Canadian Pacific in overall size, assets, annual income, and profits.

Transport committee  With respect, I don't believe that is the situation, certainly with Canadian Pacific. The vast majority of dealings we have with our shippers are resolved amicably. We have really relatively few commercial complaints, and most of those we're able to resolve without going to dispu

Transport committee  May I just add one thing? I think Mr. Mackay has explained this very well, and as Mr. Patenaude said, the commercial dispute resolution process that was essentially discussed and negotiated with shipper groups is still available to shippers. It is a process that both railways of