Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you, Minister, for being here.
It's interesting, because we know the discussions on this go back to 2000 or 2001. Over those periods of time—and I'm from Ontario and I don't have the western perspective—the cattle that used to come in now don't come by rail; grain that used to be transported by rail is not nearly as prevalent. Why? What I'm hearing, especially on the grain side, is it's because of the cost and reliability. Sometimes it's the reliability. They've been able to have the cars come into the grain elevators to get unloaded, make sure they're going to be there, and they don't show up. Those are the two issues.
The charges for railways seems to have gone at their discretion. Some of those charges that are being added in, those extra charges—whether they're for the cleaning, the storage, the weighing—seem to have been at the railways' discretion.
I think the final offer of arbitration is good. The only thing that I raise, and it's always something in the back of many people's minds, especially in the rural areas, when you hear of arbitrations is that it's good for small shippers, and that's important. Mainly out where I come from, that's what we have, smaller shippers.
So I'm glad to see the shippers, when I've talked to the few in the short while I've been involved in the committee, accept the concept, because it is a good concept.
I just want some clarification or surety that it doesn't become some sort of a judicial nightmare in terms of being able to go through the process and it becomes so costly and so time-consuming that it won't be productive.