Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Good morning, gentlemen.
I want to take exception to one of the comments that was made during the presentation. When you were here last time, Mr. Harrison, you told us you guys represented 90% of farmers, and I can tell you that in my riding, probably 10% of the farmers might know what the Farmer Rail Car Coalition is. The other 90% don't have a clue who you guys are and what you're about. After the decision was made by the government not to transfer the rail cars to the FRCC, I never received one negative comment. It's quite the contrary; farmers are coming up and saying we made the right decision.
I come from a western agricultural riding. I'm a farmer myself, and what you're saying doesn't jibe with what farmers are telling me out in the field.
I appreciate what you're saying about the cost of maintenance. And, yes, I believe the cap was too high and we weren't getting value for the money we were paying into the revenue cap for maintenance on the cars.
I see in the CTA letter here that they did value that cap at around $1,700 versus $1,500, yet we know that cars are in disrepair and it will take at least another $35 million to get them back to par. So how do you make $1,500 work as your maintenance level, knowing that the railroads have put in $1,700 per car, per year and they're still in disrepair?