Yes, I strongly oppose the amendment, Mr. Chair. The study will only be another delaying tactic by backbench members of the government. In the meantime, it leaves all the power on the side of the railways. The fact of the matter is, yes, we heard from the railways, but we also heard from producers on this issue; they were before the committee on this issue on producer cars. I believe one of them was the Canadian Wheat Board, was it not?
The motion is really not that complicated. It doesn't order the government to stop; it makes a recommendation to the government to provide the necessary legislation to prevent railway companies from arbitrarily closing down producer car loading sites. That, in my interpretation, means that a process is found so there's some balance of power when the producers, who want to load grain at producer car sites, are faced with the railways closing them down. Right now they can close them down in 30 days with an ad in the paper. This motion was put forward way back on March 12, pretty nearly a year ago. I think it's time we made a recommendation to the House of Commons, to the government...we couldn't get the motion moved up before because you folks on that side want to delay any action on the part of the government to stand up for farmers.
As well, Mr. Chair, the producer car sites that are there are really not costing the railways any money when they're not being used. Once they're gone, they're gone forever. Already under the current legislative arrangements the railways are getting some funding for those producer car sites. We know for a fact--and this is the other one the government wants to deal with--that right now a survey has shown about 62% of shippers have suffered financial consequences as a result of poor rail service, yet at the same time, the rail companies are trying to close down producer car sites on their own, arbitrarily, without any balance of power. The Wheat Board--I found the figures I'd mentioned earlier--found out in their study that railways received excessive profits of $123 million in 2007-08 and of $275 million in 2008-09. That's money that comes right out of the producers' pockets, Mr. Chair. At least in this instance we have an opportunity to make a recommendation to the House for the government to do something that is on the side of farmers. Let's do it.