Agriculture committee  First and foremost, we've heard about the intention to expand and enhance the public performance reporting that's available under the grain monitoring program, and we're wholly supportive of that move. Again it's a matter of how quickly we can ramp up, how quickly we can ensure that those measures are in place and that the reporting is taking place.

Agriculture committee  I think in the short term the role they play is precisely what we just heard. They're gathering product and servicing the main line. They're working as partners with the mainline railroads, CN and CP. In an environment where we have both of those carriers focused on tight cycle times and quick turnaround of their assets, their role isn't as prominent as it could be.

Agriculture committee  I think I'd go back to the comments I made in my opening remarks and that is that we have to go beyond simply the established car target and total tonnage target and we have to get into a little bit more level of specificity with respect to the movement along various corridors, movement of various commodities, and movement through to various destinations.

Agriculture committee  Yes, I'll reiterate what I said in my opening comments, and that is, our members—pulse and special crop shippers—are being told that their service will suffer. They will suffer because of the nature of the move, the corridor that they want to move it through. They're feeling very threatened right now by the actions and the words of the railways, and it is both.

Agriculture committee  I'll tackle that and I'll bounce around a bit. Perhaps I'll start with the last question and connect it to the first one. The last question was whether “adequate and suitable” adequate and suitable in the definition of service. Our view has been and the view of the Coalition of Rail Shippers has been, for the last three years as we've been discussing these issues, that it is not.

Agriculture committee  I think later today you're going to hear from Wade Sobkowich from the Western Grain Elevator Association, who has put together some very comprehensive figures for you with respect to what still needs to move and what would be required over the course of the next few months. From a pulse and special crops perspective, one of the things we'll want to stress is as we aim to hit these targets, as we aim to put 5,500 cars per railway per week out into the Prairies and start moving product, that this product is allocated, or the allocation and distribution of those cars ensures that there is fair and equitable treatment for all shippers of all sizes moving all commodities through all corridors.

Agriculture committee  I think we're going to end up saying pretty much the same thing here. Whether we talk about the level of the fine or whether we talk about compensation to farmers, we are all talking about the same thing and that's the need for accountability in the system. What I want to stress here in my response to you is that accountability starts with the relationship between the shipper and the carrier.

Agriculture committee  We produced about 3.8 million tonnes of peas, 1.8 million tonnes of lentils, just over 200,000 tonnes of beans, nearly 200,000 tonnes of chickpeas. Into the special crops you have 165,000 tonnes of mustard, 130,000 tonnes of canary seed, and 52,000 tonnes of sunflower. I can't tell you exactly today how much of that has moved and how much is still yet to move, but I can tell you projections for carry-outs extend anywhere between 800,000 tonnes and beyond a million tonnes.

Agriculture committee  Good evening, and thank you, Mr. Chair, and members of the committee, for the opportunity to be here tonight to discuss Bill Bill C-30 and its implications for the ag industry. We don't have a lot of time, so I'm going to focus on the areas that are priorities for our members.

Agriculture committee  If you look at whether or not they're interested in doing that, I would point to their fourth quarter earnings call transcript where they suggest that the record crop presents lots of opportunities to basically move grain more efficiently. Furthermore, they say: ...it’s going to be one of the crop years where we don’t have the peakiness that we’ve had in the past.

Agriculture committee  I think quite obviously it would have been catastrophic for our sector. While the grain industry is suffering and while we're 50,000 carloads behind—and I think CN comprised some 47% of that shortfall—to have management running trains would be nothing short of catastrophic. In a sector like the pulse industry, the impact that we feel first when we have a work stoppage is that the majority of small to medium-sized processors are typically last in the queue in terms of service.

Agriculture committee  Let's not forget that you had the most significant and exhaustive review of rail freight service this country has ever held only two years ago. The panel met with over 80 different stakeholder groups and read over 140 submissions from stakeholders across the country and they came up with an exhaustive list of recommendations.

Agriculture committee  No.

Agriculture committee  Thank you Mr. Chairman, and thanks to the committee for the opportunity to appear today as you address what is without question the single most important issue facing the agriculture industry. This afternoon you are going to hear from a key group of stakeholders. Each witness is going to provide you with some important insights into the impact of this year's poor supply chain performance on that group's membership.