Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you, Minister, for appearing before us today.
I'm certainly pleased that this legislation is moving forward. As I recall, this is probably the third, if not the fourth, iteration of this bill, and I'm glad to see that we appear to be moving towards some consensus on this.
But there are going to be those who are still asking why we are actually introducing additional regulation into this industry. Many of us—certainly those on this side of the table—would typically hold the view that we believe strongly in free enterprise and a free market, and that for the most part it does a good job of ensuring best prices and best service. Yet we hear complaints from communities across Canada who claim they're not being served properly. They believe they're being held captive by the railways.
The same holds true for suppliers. They feel that they're being held hostage by an industry that is not truly free and open and served as well as it could be.
My observations certainly indicate that, really, the railway industry in Canada is essentially an oligopoly dominated by two main players. Many of the communities in Canada are served by only one of those, so it's not surprising that they would feel that they're underserviced and that the services that are provided are overpriced.
If the railway industry were a truly free and open marketplace where we had many players, would we expect that this kind of legislation would still be required?