Thank you for the question, and good morning.
To your point, before I was blessed with an opportunity in politics, I was a small business owner. I worked for an international corporation, dealt with a lot of shippers and did a lot of shipping. Cents per pound is the difference at times for a shipper, or a company that is shipping, between being in business and not being in business, number one.
There are times when shippers may be tempted to go with a lower rate. That's fair; that's business, but if that lower rate is there because that player plays unfairly, doesn't pay his taxes, doesn't do his deductions, and who maybe doesn't train his workers and provides inferior equipment, it's not what will build our economy and make our sectors and economy strong. We need to correct that. That has been something that needs to be corrected.
Obviously you've had lots of testimony here at committee, and we're taking action. We're a new government. We were elected on April 28. I remember that day. I'm sure all members remember that day. I was given the privilege of having this role. I came into this role saying, “I'm going to take action. I'm going to identify problems, and I'm going to try to fix things in inequities I see”. This was an inequity. It was not a level and fair playing field for truckers and for shippers.