Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you to all of our witnesses for appearing today.
I know that my colleague from Saskatchewan here mentioned potash, but I note that last week there was a major agreement with Bangladesh to substantially expand potash exports. That's welcome news, I'm sure, in the province of Saskatchewan.
Mr. Demers, let me start with you. We appreciate your participation here today. I understand you've had some conversations with Minister Raitt. As we hear by your comments today, you raised the issue with her of track-bed maintenance. For those who have been watching the troubling issue of signals misfiring here in the Ottawa region, it's been determined that one of the three root causes has been the poor condition of track-bed. I think that's causing a vibration problem. That's part of the misfire of the signal, so the condition of track-bed, its maintenance, is an important issue.
Can you expand a little bit on your concerns for the committee? Who should be fiscally responsible, if you will, for the maintenance? Is that the railway companies, be they class I or be they short-line railways? Have you raised that issue with FCM? Let's start there.