Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, gentlemen, for appearing here today.
I'm looking at the amendments here that you're suggesting, but I do need to go back. If I go to my riding and talk...I don't have another business that is universally more despised than the railroad industry. That's just a fact. I don't think it's all railroads. CP and CN are in my neighbourhood.
If you talk to the people adjacent to your properties, if it's not the trains idling for hours where we couldn't get them to stop or move away from personal properties, it's shippers. Maybe you don't have complaints because they feel intimidated and they actually don't complain to you, but they don't want anything else done because they're scared they're not going to get their cargo moved after that. There are the derailments--a whole series of things--and it's a sad situation, quite frankly.
It could be a great Canadian conspiracy to hold the railroads in such despise.
I'll not only give you an opportunity to respond, but obviously you've seen the evidence come forward with all the groups and organizations expressing concerns and wanting a new process. We've been through several machinations of legislation. Now it's boiled down to Bill C-8.
What can you say in terms of these amendments that you're proposing right now that would be, I guess, more fair to your business?
And second, what would it do for productivity in Canada if your amendments went forth? Would it assist in better operations overall? It's obvious that you have to do some public relations in an entirely different way. If you haven't heard that enough here today, you'll hear it continually if nothing changes.
What would your arguments be back to those who would raise concerns about these amendments in the bill for your operations and how, in your opinion--I would like to hear it--it would benefit the shippers and so forth that you're serving if these amendments went forth?