Mr. Speaker, the announcement made earlier today by the Minister of Transport, the minister responsible for the Canadian Wheat Board and myself is a very good announcement for Canadian farmers and for all those in the grain industry in western Canada. It will mean $178 million in savings in transportation grain costs to farmers in western Canada this year. It will also mean that the federal government will contribute $175 million over five years toward the improvement of grain transportation in western Canada.
The industry has said, and rightfully so, that we needed to make some changes to the system to make it more efficient, more competitive and less costly.