Mr. Speaker, yesterday the Canadian Transportation Agency ruled that CPR did not allocate enough rail cars to haul farmers' grain to the west coast in the winter of 1996-97.
This complaint was filed on behalf of grain producers by the Canadian Wheat Board and included a complaint against CN rail as well.
The wheat board estimates that this failure to provide adequate service cost farmers $50 million and the board is now expected to sue CP for a portion of those damages. This poor service is a direct result of the effective monopoly by CN and CP on shipping western grain. Yet these same railways argue that the system should now be totally deregulated so that they alone can decide what to haul, when to haul it and at what tariff.
This would be a disaster for western Canadian farmers. Yesterday's ruling proves that in order to protect farmers the federal government must continue to play a key role in regulating grain transportation in Canada.