I'll start off, as the senior person here in both age and length of negotiating time.
GO Transit has been negotiating with the railways for 40 years. For the most part, it has been a healthy negotiation with the railways. I'm not here to put the railways down. They negotiate tough. They have an asset they know is valuable. They want to maximize their profit, and so they bargain hard.
The real issue is that we don't have any right of appeal. That's really the whole process here, the fact that we're dealing with a monopoly. I don't have any other choice of where I can run my trains. There is that specific corridor, and that's it.
So when I say to them, “You're charging too much”, their comment to me is, “Take it or leave it.” As a public agency, I can't just leave it. I want to operate more train service for the public, but at the same time I have a fiscal responsibility I have to adhere to.
I have the ability to say, “If you're not going to settle on this thing, I have a right of arbitration”, which is an independent third party arbitration. Right now in my contract I have the right of arbitration, but typically it's done by an individual who's heavily involved in the railway industry. Not once has an arbitration ever been ruled in our favour.
The important thing for me now is that I have the ability to threaten to go to an independent agency, which means that the other party will bargain in good faith. That's the main thing.
I hope never to use the arbitration process. That's something I really hope. I would much rather deal face to face with, say, CN and CP. I would rather strike a deal, because that means we have to work together. If I have to go to an agency and go through an arbitration process, the railways can make my life hell, so I'd rather not go that route. I want to have a fair negotiations process. That's really what I want.