Thank you, Chair.
I want to thank all of you folks for appearing. I think this is the most crowded this room has ever been.
With regard to the mechanism for compensating shippers, I personally like what you're suggesting. I think the minister suggested that each and every breach would have to go before the courts; that you'd be free to sue. Of course, as you know, the railroads being what they are have much deeper pockets than those 4,239 small or very small shippers, and spending $600,000 to get $50,000 in damages is not really a good way to spend your money.
That said, for Monsieur Poilievre's edification, the labour arbitration system in Canada has damages within it. Every labour arbitrator can award an individual or a union damages at every arbitration hearing. It's just the way it works.
Most labour arbitration is just right or wrong. Someone who was fired can be reinstated, and someone who didn't get paid can get paid. But this has expanded to include the notion of damages. There's a little cottage industry of labour arbitrators in this country who—