Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, gentlemen.
My questions are mainly to Mr. Churko.
While the Canadian Wheat Board is extremely important to western farmers as a marketing institution, transportation, especially in your area, is really functional to marketing. I don't think a lot of people understand that in the country. You're 900 miles from tidewater, on average, and it's extremely crucial that the railways do work in your interest.
There's no question that, from my experience, Transport Canada was always opposed to the FRCC's proposal, which would have given producers a little more marketing clout in terms of dealing with the railways. In any event, the new government took Transport Canada's recommendations, which is as much as not the railway's recommendation, and broke that agreement.
The fact of the matter is, I think you said the figures were somewhere close to $40 million per year, in terms of overcharged maintenance. They've been doing that for a number of years. Do you think it's right that they basically get to keep those moneys that they've gouged from farmers over all those years?