We have to maximize whatever way we have to move the grain, there's no question. But you're right; farmers want to sell to where they want to sell in terms of market so that's important.
What we have right now are certain corridors we can use. It seems to be felt that the easiest corridor to move, the fastest corridor to move, is of course going to the west coast, Prince Rupert or Port Metro Vancouver and all the terminals that have been built out there.
We also have other ways. We have Churchill, which is utilized sometimes. We have a U.S. route. We can go to the east coast directly into Halifax and along the way there. As well we have Thunder Bay. We utilize marine mode of transport in order to move it out of the system. Ideally all of these modes work. Ideally that allows us to move as quickly as we can as much grain as we can.
One of the things that wasn't mentioned yet is the way the markets work this year. What became clear as well is that it's one thing to plan for what is a normal crop, but it's another thing to plan to exceed it in whatever percentages you can talk about, but when all the orders come in at the same time.... Normally you can run about 4,200 cars per railway to the west coast. When an order comes in for 7,200 cars, you can see there is a discrepancy in terms of what's possible and what's not.
You know what? I'm not here to be apologetic for the railways. Our role in Transport Canada is to ensure that we understand the chain and that we do as much as we can to ensure that we balance that relationship. What we want in the government is for economic prosperity for everybody and getting to move our product to market. That's what we're going to continue to work on.
I'm glad you mentioned Thunder Bay, Mr. Chair, because it is a viable alternative, and it is a place.
Now, the Great Lakes are frozen right now, so it is a route that is limited by weather. It's great to be in Canada, but absolutely, utilization of all our modes, and just continue to do what we're doing well in the world.... We're number eight in the world in terms of wheat. I'd like to move up on that list.