Mr. Speaker, I should know that they like to bully, particularly when the women stand to speak. Therefore, I will just continue speaking, because I am proud to stand up for the Prairie producers.
The reality is that the farmers are not receiving fair return on their product. There are a good number of measures that the government could be taking. As has been mentioned previously in the House by the NDP agriculture critic, the rail review report by Justice Estey, in 2002, recommended open access of rail lines, and a number of members this evening have spoken about that, encouraging the government to pursue that more thoroughly.
Of course, we are shipping our bitumen by rail through those lines, all the way to the United States. Why on earth can we not also be pursuing, with equal energy, the potential use of those lines to get our grain to market?
Other recommendations have been suggested tonight that have been recommended by many producers and others.
Previously, there were shared lines between CP and CN. Perhaps that is a solution.
There is potential for short lines. Obviously that means that other Canadian investors have to invest and get those lines up and going. I know that a number of former members from this House are working on exactly those kinds of lines and other ways to get grain product out.
Again, there is the potential use of U.S. lines.
One of the matters brought to my attention this evening was by Humphrey Banack, who is the vice-president of the Canadian Federation of Agriculture. His concern is that there was a lot of a hullabaloo when the government passed its Fair Rail Freight Service Act in June 2013. That act was supposed to resolve the issue about negotiations between the producers and the shippers. Their concern is that the minister promised that he would resolve the matter of this dispute sometime back, and still they are waiting, yet all the minister has done is propose further studies. Therefore, they are calling upon the government to step up to the plate to deliver on those promises and actually establish a rotation process but ensure that penalties are imposed on the rail companies when they do not actually deliver on those contracts that are entered into. They say that has a significant impact on them.
They still remain optimistic. They are hoping, as a result of the emergency debate this evening, that the agriculture minister might move on that promise.
Again, absurdly, the government is standing and bragging about the bumper crop. This is part of the so-called problem. We have this bumper crop and, for whatever reason, the two major rail companies, CN and CP, are simply not providing the cars, even the number of cars they promised to provide, the initial lower estimates.
So, we need them to step up to the plate. We are proud of our grain growers and we want to make sure that not only they get their crop there in time but that they get a fair price.
Disappointingly, this evening, we have heard, time after time, the government members saying the real culprits here are the unions. I defy the government members to tell us why it is the union members' fault that this product is not getting to market. I know that a good number of rail workers were let go. We know that there are far fewer rail cars now available, that the current president and CEO of CP has significantly reduced the number of cars available. We are also well aware—and this matter is being discussed in the House and well into the future—that there are many cars now being dedicated toward the shipping of bitumen. In fact, in Alberta, we are gearing up with two major terminals that are going to be providing 24-hour loading of bitumen to be shipped along lines.
This question arises: What is going on between the shipping of products such as potash and grain vis-à-vis the shipping of bitumen? Do we have an issue where the federal government should be intervening on behalf of our farm growers?
In closing, I would like to say that the government has been given a lot of options this evening on specific actions that could be taken. I know that the grain growers look forward to action on one or all of those.
I welcome questions.