Mr. Speaker, to begin, I would like to tell you that I will be sharing my time with the very able member for Churchill.
I am pleased to rise in the House today to discuss the bill that would give customers of railway companies the right to establish service agreements with those companies and would create an arbitration process in case of failed negotiations. Despite its weaknesses, the bill is very important for the Canadian economy, especially for the agricultural, mining and forestry sectors, which depend heavily on rail transport.
The bill is not perfect. Still, we appreciate that after so many years of fine words and no action, the Conservatives have finally acted and introduced the bill.
On this subject, I would like to thank the hon. member for Trinity—Spadina who, by introducing her own bill on protecting customers of railway companies, was able to prod the Conservative government into action. The government presented its bill six months later. Better late than never.
My speech will have three parts. First, I will highlight the importance of strengthening the position of shippers in Canada's rail transport sector. Then I will show that the bill does not go far enough to improve services and protect shippers. Finally, I will propose amendments based on the recommendations presented to the Standing Committee on Transportation, Infrastructure and Communities by the Coalition of Rail Shippers.
Why is it important to take action to improve rail transportation services? Because rail is among the most-used means of transport in Canada. In Canada, railways transport more than 70% of goods shipped on land. The economic power of railways is considerable.
That leads me to my second point. Despite the importance of this mode of transportation for many shippers, service interruptions, delays and various problems with productivity are common among rail transporters. This situation affects many sectors, including natural resources, agriculture, forest products, mines, chemical industries and the automotive sector.
In terms of agriculture, 80% of service agreements are not complied with by the railway companies. This means delays or trains that simply do not arrive, damaged rail cars or not enough rail cars. In addition to the losses caused by this kind of problem—such as harvests that may rot—the poor quality of rail transport services undermines the ability of Canadian exporters to compete in world markets. This situation costs the Canadian economy many hundreds of millions of dollars every year.
Let us now try to determine the source of these problems. One of sources of these problems is, of course, the virtual monopoly. As the hon. member for Okanagan—Coquihalla said earlier in his question, the problem is the monopoly held by the railways in Canada. In most regions of the country, shippers cannot choose their railway carrier because they have access either to CN or to CP. Even in cases where both companies are present, one of the two usually charges prices that are much too high, which does not leave shippers with much of a choice. To some extent, the monopoly situation was made possible by the Liberals when they were in power. They are the ones who privatized CN in 1995. By failing to set out protective measures for shippers, they reinforced the virtual monopoly we have today.
At the time, one option would have been to privatize railway activities while ensuring that the rail transportation system remained public, which also would have been beneficial for VIA Rail. Right now, VIA Rail mostly has to use rented tracks belonging to CN.
When I was deputy critic of transport, I met with the Western Canadian Shippers' Coalition and it let me know what it needed to help foster economic growth in the west, on the Prairies. I am sure it is going to be happy to see this very bill come to life. It has been waiting for more than five years. It has been waiting for seven years for this legislation to come to life.
Just to clarify for Canadians, the Western Canadian Shippers' Coalition is made up of important Canadian companies, like the Alberta Newsprint Company, Al-Pac Forest Industries Inc., Canadian Forest Products Inc., Canadian Oilseed Processors Association, Canadian Wheat Board, Coal Valley Resources Inc., Coalspur Mines Ltd., Dunkley Lumber Ltd., Grand Cache Coal Corporation, Lehigh Cement, Chemtrade, Millar Western Forest Products and Suncor, among many other important Canadian companies. Many of these companies are in the natural resources sector.
The government tends to think that it is the best friend of the resource sector. The sector relies on the government as a regulator to ensure reliability in terms of service. The result, if it is done properly, is that companies prosper and flourish. Without leadership, without the government taking on its role as regulator, the companies simply endure or, even worse, sometimes flounder. This legislation would allow the companies to simply endure. It is not good enough to let them prosper and flourish.
The NDP would prefer to see these companies prosper and contribute to the health of our resources sector and the agricultural sector. In committee, there were amendments proposed by these two sectors. The NDP listened, but the government was in such a rush to fall behind, that it really did not listen to what these companies were asking for. I am going to read what the companies asked for and what the Conservatives did not consider.
One thing they wanted to do was to fix the service agreements. They wanted, one, to include details on service agreement components; two, a deletion of the term “operational” as it would limit the ability to negotiate and arbitrate service agreements; three, to include a dispute resolution mechanism in service agreements for breach of contract; four, to limit the ability of railway companies to levy penalties and charges that are not in the service agreement; five, to limit arbitration for failed service agreement negotiations to matters raised by the shipper; six, to limit railway companies' ability to raise network issues in arbitration, for example, finding convenient excuses for not agreeing to shippers' demands in contract negotiations and arbitrations.
New Democrats felt that these were very reasoned amendments and the government had a choice: it could listen to the resource sector and Canadian farmers or it could listen to a monopoly with a long history of manipulating government throughout Canadian history. Unfortunately, it looks like it chose, for these amendments at least, the side of the monopoly, as the member for Okanagan—Coquihalla mentioned.
