Mr. Speaker, there are two points that my friend across the way and I can agree on. I am going to leave the tragic case of the circus elephant behind because I am not sure that this bill directly speaks to that particular provision. I do not see it in the legislation. There are two things that we can agree on. One is the importance of rail. Eighty per cent of all of our freight moves on rail.
The second is that we have a particular challenge posed to us in Canada in that we have two large rail companies that almost entirely dominate every sector of the market. In the U.S. and in other circumstances there are other options for those shipping products. Canada has a duopoly. These companies have been shown by the Competition Bureau at various times to collaborate and coordinate, to raise prices, to offer less service without retribution because they know they are the only options people can go to.
We only get to address the rail system every once in a while. Does my colleague believe that any steps in Bill C-52 would do much to go after the service fees that have been talked about by many shippers in this country? They have had problems and real concerns that the pricing may be non-competitive. When there is a market with only two players in it, non-competitive pricing can pose a real problem to such a fundamental industry as the shipping industry in Canada.