Agriculture Committee on Dec. 9th, 2010

[Wayne Easter, Liberal, Malpeque, PE]

And you should chair the meeting. You should chair the meeting properly and be fair.

[The Chair, Conservative, Larry Miller]

We're being fair. It's his seven minutes.

Don't go there, Wayne.

[Allen Oberg]

Cost and service are two separate issues. I hear it being suggested--

[Randy Hoback, Conservative, Prince Albert, SK]

You're exactly--

[Allen Oberg]

Let me finish. Let me have the floor, unless you want to have another question.

[Randy Hoback, Conservative, Prince Albert, SK]

That's exactly right, though: cost and service are two separate issues.

[Allen Oberg]

That's right--

[Randy Hoback, Conservative, Prince Albert, SK]

So you have to nail down the service you want. At what cost? We don't want a Belarus: we want something that's going to provide value.

[Allen Oberg]

This whole idea that if you pay higher freight rates you'll get better service is erroneous. We have 10 years of history to prove that. Freight rates have increased in the last 10 years. Has service gotten any better? Absolutely not.

As for this idea you're suggesting that if you have a higher-value product you should have a higher freight rate, I don't think farmers are going to buy that.

[Randy Hoback, Conservative, Prince Albert, SK]

Actually, I'm not suggesting it. What I'm suggesting is that the farmers with the higher value product might be willing to pay a higher freight rate because they are more tied to the market and getting a reaction to get that premium. They might say they're willing to pay that 10 cents more a pound because they're going to make more money on that product.

[Allen Oberg]

But as history has shown, just because you have higher freight rates doesn't mean you get improved service.

[Randy Hoback, Conservative, Prince Albert, SK]

Okay. That's fair.

Do I still have some time?

[The Chair, Conservative, Larry Miller]

You have half a minute.

[Randy Hoback, Conservative, Prince Albert, SK]

I'm going to go back to Mr. Bacon.

When you look at the lentil sector or the pulse sector and stuff like that, what can we do as a committee that would help your industry in regard to rail?

[Gordon Bacon]

Well, there are the recommendations that Greg put forward in our presentation.

First of all, I would say that what can be acted on immediately are the measurements of rail performance that are important to shippers. This is not just what our community in pulse and special crops recommends; it's part of what the Coalition of Rail Shippers has said.

There are some important measurements, and I think government could be looking at ensuring we have an objective, fair, independent measure of those. Simply put the measurements out. Business to business will take a look at those and determine whether we're making the movement in the right direction.

That's the first thing that can be done without your even looking at regulations or legislative amendments. That would be my first comment. It's something that could be started right away.

[The Chair, Conservative, Larry Miller]

Thank you.

Mr. Eyking, for five minutes.

[Mark Eyking, Liberal, Sydney—Victoria, NS]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Just to start, I have to say that I'm very disappointed sometimes at how the government side, whatever challenges we face out west, always tries to blame them on the Wheat Board. It doesn't matter if it's rail or anything else. They try to make the Wheat Board responsible for anything that goes wrong out there. They probably even blame the bad weather on the Wheat Board.

So it's not surprising what happened here today, but I think we have to stay away from blaming the Wheat Board for everything bad that happens. But my question--

[Brian Storseth, Conservative, Westlock—St. Paul, AB]

I take great—

[The Chair, Conservative, Larry Miller]

Make it a point of order.

[Brian Storseth, Conservative, Westlock—St. Paul, AB]

I'm trying to be polite and wait for Mr. Eyking to finish his rant.

Mr. Chair, I take great umbrage with the fact that Mr. Eyking would insult western Canadian farmers with his comments about the weather and how we're looking to slough off—

[Mark Eyking, Liberal, Sydney—Victoria, NS]

No, it's you guys—

[Brian Storseth, Conservative, Westlock—St. Paul, AB]

—the problems we've had. We've had real problems. We've had drought problems. We've had flood problems. We're having—

[Mark Eyking, Liberal, Sydney—Victoria, NS]

That's not a point of order.

[Brian Storseth, Conservative, Westlock—St. Paul, AB]

—problems in the Peace River country.

You need to show more respect for western Canadian farmers.

[The Chair, Conservative, Larry Miller]

That's not a point of order, Mr. Storseth.

Go ahead, Mr. Eyking.