Mr. Speaker, I thank the member for his question.
I think that whenever you see a demand for a service as he suggests exists in the grain transportation field not being adequately provided, what that is telling you is that you do not really have a proper market operating; that there is still either too much regulation, or monopoly framework or semi-monopoly framework because supply is not responding to demand.
I suggest that what that means is you have to go to further deregulation and that freight rates ultimately should be set by market forces. This is what we advocate.
The minister will also notice that in our safety net reforms we argue taking away the funds that are currently used to subsidize the railways under the Western Grain Transportation Act, and channelling them into one of these three income support programs, in particular the expanded NISA.
We think that provides a measure of protection to the producer over the changes which market transportation rates would provide. It is also a mechanism of helping the producer that would be GATT green. That is our view on how you employ more market forces to solve the transportation problem and still provide a measure of transitory protection to the producer.