Mr. Speaker, I do not think I was inconsistent in my remarks. The reason why these grain cars have been diverted to the United States is that under the Western Grain Transportation Act the railways get paid on the amount of grain they move.
However if we do not have the engines to pull these cars, it does not do us very much good to try to get the amount of cars on the system that are needed. Therefore these cars that provincial governments, the federal government and the wheat board bought for the transportation system have been diverted across to the U.S. to gain income. They could not be used in Canada because of the lack of engine power.
It is financially beneficial to the railways to do that. Freight rates in the United States, the pace at which they move their cars, the time of turnaround for these cars are far superior to the Canadian system.
We exported some grain last year and the agent who was shipping that grain further down the line paid from $250 to $750 per car according to the need that he had for them. There was a tremendous amount of incentive to move cars that the railways could not use to the U.S. because of a lack of engine power and benefit financially by probably millions and millions of dollars.