Agriculture committee  They may make that planting decision, but as the Colombian buyer pointed out, he has to consider the reliability of supply when he needs product. If your shelves are empty, you need product on a predictable basis. The key is really to identify the problems in the entire system, from the farm gate all the way through to the time the boat leaves Canadian waters.

Agriculture committee  Well, we were a big player in Growing Forward 1, and before that in the agriculture policy framework, and I think we have tried to undertake some very innovative projects. One of the compliments that should go to government is that it is making some big investments in what the agriculture industry might consider high-risk ventures.

Agriculture committee  Right. I think we need to look at what's worked well. Where did government get value from the investments in Growing Forward 1, and where did you see underperformance? Let's make sure we're building on the good things and trying to tighten up the things that didn't give us the performance we needed.

Agriculture committee  Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And good afternoon to all the committee members. Many of you will be familiar with Pulse Canada. We are a national industry association that represents pulse growers in Ontario, Saskatchewan, Alberta, and Manitoba, as well as the Canadian Special Crops Association, the association that represents processors, exporters, and service providers for the pea, lentil, bean, and chickpea industry.

Agriculture committee  For our members, the number one issue is transportation, Number two is market access. These are the very visible issues that are creating cost inefficiencies and uncertainty. We're trying to create an environment in which we can be competitive on a global scale. Our members have said that those are the number one and number two issues.

Agriculture committee  Our organization has said from the beginning that we have to define the service expectation. We're well below what our members feel is reasonable. You have to define the level of service that railways are going to deliver. You cost that service. You measure it. So you cannot, in our view, take a look at costing a service that's underperforming.

Agriculture committee  If you look at it from a shipper's perspective, whether it's someone loading lumber or pulses, you've built a facility along the rail line. That should be your lowest-cost option, because you're built to load out of that facility. I couldn't comment on the railways' comments about their competition, but if you take a look at a shipper that has built along one particular rail line, that's the kind of business-to-business performance and measurements of performance that I think we want to focus on.

Agriculture committee  Well, there are the recommendations that Greg put forward in our presentation. First of all, I would say that what can be acted on immediately are the measurements of rail performance that are important to shippers. This is not just what our community in pulse and special crops recommends; it's part of what the Coalition of Rail Shippers has said.

Agriculture committee  Well, we're definitely not offside with any organization. I want to make that clear. What we have said is that we believe the approach and the logical order of addressing this is to define the service, cost the service, and decide whether that cost is appropriate. We have a system that desperately needs improvement.

Agriculture committee  Good morning, Mr. Chairman. Good morning, members of the committee. Very quickly, I'll note that Pulse Canada is a national organization made up of grower organizations from each of the major pulse-producing provinces and of members of the Canadian Special Crops Association, which are the processors and exporters of peas, beans, lentils, chickpeas, canary seed, mustard, buckwheat, and sunflowers.

Agriculture committee  Pulse Canada, as Barry mentioned in his presentation, has been working to try to find commercial-based solutions that bring all the players together so that everyone from the railways--and I certainly don't want to focus just on them--and from the steamship line, container companies, growers, processors, container stuffers, all recognize how closely interrelated they are.

Agriculture committee  I can't really comment on vegetable crops, but I think perhaps you're pointing out the need for what in our view is harmonization as a trading nation. When we have different policies in place with some of our major trading partners, we do end up having trade impacted more by policy than by the economics of supply and demand and quality issues.

Agriculture committee  One of our focuses in the pulse industry is health and nutrition, and food safety is very much a part of that. Because I'm involved in agriculture, I know it's important in all of these areas. Our industry in Canada wants to ensure that we're providing healthy, safe food products, and we expect the same from products that are going to be traded.

Agriculture committee  I'd like to make a quick comment on research. Pulse Canada for years has advocated boosting public funding in research. All the presentations this morning talked about how innovation is going to drive the competitiveness of the industry, and that's all going to come out of research dollars.

Agriculture committee  I'd like to echo JoAnne's comments in terms of support for the secretariat that was set up. I think it's an excellent way to bring the resources of various departments and agencies of government, together with the industry, to sit down and work through some solutions. In our industry, we've had problems for a number of years with pulse trade into India.