Mr. Speaker, I also had a motion similar to Motion No. 6 to pull section 27 out of the bill. I do not believe it has served users very well.
When the bill was introduced the minister at the time said that the old transport bill had been too much in the interest of shippers and that this piece of legislation would be the railways bill.
With the inclusion of section 27 it may not only be the railways bill but also perhaps the legal professions and negotiators bill. The activities will go on, meeting the requirements of section 27, to identify what a lot of those words mean, words that are not now identified in the bill or in the section describing what words mean. There is no mention of what the words commercial harm or substantial commercial harm mean. Yet that is the basis on which the agency is required to intervene on behalf of a shipper with the new wording of section 27(2).
Some of the shippers made it quite clear in a press release yesterday that sections 27(2) and (3) of Bill C-14 will significantly hinder the ability of shippers to use the shipper protections of the bill. They said the spirit of Bill C-14 is to create a more market oriented, efficient transportation system. "We strongly support that", said the president of the Alberta Wheat Pool, Alec Graham, "however, clauses 27(2) and 27(3) fly in the face of the whole purpose of the legislation".
The grain shippers made it abundantly clear that these sections would not increase competitiveness or financial viability of the railways and would not do anything for the shippers except impose extensive, expensive and lengthy legal battles over what is subjective language.
Given that, I suggest we spend a fair bit of time on this and that government members pause before bringing this one to a vote. The new minister has perhaps not had a chance to do the amount of background work and research necessary for him to make a decision on this. This should not be proceeded with at the moment. We should pause the debate at this stage and bring it forward after the weekend so that the minister can again have a chance to revisit this and to pay further attention to the concerns of shippers.