Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for his question, which will allow me to be a bit more specific.
There are two sides to the problem. The cost of the arbitration process will be paid by both parties. I repeat that in this country there is a duopoly. Two massive companies regularly face off in arbitration with medium-sized companies and sometimes even small companies with far fewer resources, but the cost is the same.
I would like to read out a provision that really concerns me:
No party to a confidential contract is entitled to submit a matter governed by the contract to the Agency for final offer arbitration under section 161, without the consent of all the parties to the contract.
So people have a contract and go to arbitration. What happens if the big company says no? They will end up in court and the costs will be insane.
If a massive company like CN does not want a potentially damaging issue to move forward, we know what will happen: it will drag out for years or decades, because the company is strong enough to drag things out. In the meantime, SMEs will have to wait for fair service.