Thank you, Chair.
I have a couple of questions in two unrelated areas. The first is with respect to hauling grain from the prairies. You obviously had a significant crop, what may be a once in a lifetime bumper-type crop, but there are other commodities besides the grain commodity. I know that we've taken measures to ensure that minimum quantities are hauled, and you've done a good job in that area.
There's been enough finger pointing in the various aspects of the transportation system, but one of the issues the shippers raised is whether we maybe should be looking beyond just minimum quantities. You've mentioned in your main points here that we need “modern measures for modern times”. When we look at the capacity issue, the question always is whether we are looking at what the demand is going to be down the road and whether there are enough dollars being spent in capital assets, the physical assets, to meet that demand, not only in the grain industry, which is of course important to the prairies, but in other industries as well.
You mentioned that Mr. Emerson was in the committee and they were looking at things. One of the other issues they talked about is having some basic levels of service that objectively can be understood by the parties, and also about how, if they weren't met, there perhaps could be consequences, in order to ensure that. When you're only dealing with not necessarily a competitive market, that makes this whole issue rather difficult.
Has the department been looking at all of those issues, and is the committee looking at those issues? Perhaps you might comment on that.