Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
First of all, let me say I'm astonished the NDP is arguing against another tax, but it was a pleasure to see.
Mr. Ballantyne, you were here last time, and I want to give you the opportunity, as well as Ms. Morgan and Mr. Sobkowich, to answer this question. I posed it to the railway but I didn't really receive an answer. I'm going to read it verbatim.
Let's say we have a farmer in western Canada—and this would obviously apply to loggers or whoever else—and this is a major complaint I've heard: they arrange for the cars to come, maybe six cars to come to load their product. On a Monday, they have a group of individuals there ready to load the car, maybe ten people or so. They're all ready to go, they're at the railroad waiting, and the cars don't show up. Nobody calls from the railroad, nobody tells them anything. They don't show up, not Monday, not Tuesday, maybe Thursday, maybe Friday, maybe even the next week. The shippers are expected to have these people on call, ready to go, to load the product into the cars.
Then, finally, when the railcars come, the shipment is late to the boats. A boat has been waiting for the shipment, or some other transportation mode has been waiting. The farmer or the shipper has to go to tremendous costs, and sometimes the cost, I've been told, is over and above any profit they would make--indeed, even sometimes over and above the cost of the product itself. It would be cheaper for them to just dump it.
I have heard this, and I know this is second-hand information, but I've heard it from a lot of people in different parts of the country. So my question to you is this: Does the railroad pay the shipper for the staff for those four or five days they're waiting and they receive no call? Does the railroad pay the shipper for any lost revenue and any delay? Does the railroad pay for the ship waiting for their product to be delivered? Does the railroad pay for any late shipments? Is there any payment by the railroad?