Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
Many thanks to the officials from the two railway companies who are with us today.
We called for an urgent emergency meeting two weeks ago to catalyze action for our producers, who don't get paid when grain doesn't move. Unfortunately, the Liberals didn't think it was urgent. The minister didn't even think it was serious at one time. They didn't want to listen to farmers earlier. We asked to have this meeting last week, but we were refused. Signs were there in the fall that we were facing another impending grain backlog crisis.
Farmers are in a cash crunch, and our international reputation is eroding. The railways have a responsibility to Canadians, in my opinion, to honour their contracts and to move commodities. That is their mandate.
There are just two main railways that serve all of Canada, and we rely on them for our exports and our economy to run smoothly.
As to the matter before us, grain transportation, we had a big problem and we failed. You said that grain shipments were up by 16%, but if you compare that to a slow week, you cannot say that those are good results. When you say that the rate has improved by 16% since mid-February, when the results were poor, I do not consider those good results.
There is still a lot of work to be done. As soon as the crisis became evident, we should have asked the ministers to intervene and force the rail companies to play the role that all Canadians expect of them.
My first question is for the CP officials.
Further to our request for an emergency meeting, the minister sent a letter that clearly called on you to publish your plan on your website by March 15. I was not able to find that plan, however. Can you tell me where it is?