To pick up from there, Transport Canada told us the reason we weren't able to get these amendments in the past is that as a shipping community, we were never able to agree on what sorts of changes we needed. Earlier this year, they said if we could reach consensus as a group of shippers in Canada they would seriously consider and, in fact, make the amendments we requested, using Bill C-44 as a starting point--the old Bill C-44.
So we created a coalition of these groups Rob mentioned. I have the list for folks who may be interested. In April we reached an agreement and took our proposal to Transport Canada and staff from the Minister of Transport's office.
It's important that members of Parliament recognize that in just reaching this consensus we're talking about 80% of all the rail shipments across Canada, and the different organizations, the different industries and associations, left a lot on the table. In the interest of doing what we were challenged to do, we did reach this consensus and we took it to Transport Canada.
On May 5, 2006, Transport Canada rejected some of the requests put forward by the shipper consensus, but also agreed to some. For example, shippers had proposed amending the legislation to explicitly ensure railway accountability for service. The specific wording we wanted included in the act was: “A railway company shall not provide a level of service that impedes the ability of a shipper to conduct its business in a competitive, economic, efficient and effective manner.”
This particular component was rejected by Transport Canada, so the May 5 package excludes that particular component. The outcome was a further compromise that was less than what was requested by our coalition, but we reluctantly agreed to the May 5 package, recognizing that it would not solve all the grain industry's problems; however, these changes were seen as a significant step forward toward more balanced accountability.
The changes are intended to address railway problems before they occur, primarily by changing railway behaviour through greater accountability, and also improve upon the shipper remedies to be used once an incident does occur.
The May 5 agreement also includes a commitment by the Minister of Transport to undertake a more detailed review of level of service and railway accountability concerns within 30 days of the passage of the bill. We believe an independent review of this nature would be the best way to properly identify the magnitude of declining rail service and determine solutions to reversing this trend.
With respect to the content of what was specifically agreed--I don't want to read through all of them, they can be made available--former Bill C-44was used as a starting point, and some of the more notable changes to Bill C-44 were multi-party level of service provisions.
The CTA level of service provisions would be clarified to state that they apply to multiple party filings as well as to terminal operators. Another key one was that final offer arbitration provisions would be amended to enable groups of shippers to use the FOA process--right now it only applies to individual shippers--enable groups of shippers to arbitrate ancillary rules and charges, like demurrage for example, in addition to the line haul rates and services as at present; and remove the requirement that terms of an offer under final offer arbitration apply to all shippers in the group equally.
This was seen as pretty important, because if it were a requirement that each of the multiple parties had to be equal, they would never be equal. They all have different business sizes, different shipping locations. You would never have a situation where they could all be equal. So we agreed that item should be removed.
A review of the railway service. It was recognized that the changes we talked about above only go part of the way to address problems in rail transportation; more work needs to be done. So we proposed the CTA be amended to require an independent and comprehensive review of the level of service provisions and the effectiveness of these provisions, and that this review take place no later than six months after the passage of the bill. Transport Canada and the minister did not agree to this particular insertion in the legislation, but they did commit to undertake the review of effectiveness of the CTA level of service provision. So they agreed in principle, but they didn't agree to put it in the bill.
That's what happened in the last year to get where we are today. The grain industry was part of that overall coalition of rail shippers.