Agriculture committee  In the past we were having difficulty getting that information, but this last three months and the orders that went forward from the government will start to provide us that information. I expect we'll start to get it within the next four or five weeks, and we will be tracking th

Agriculture committee  To the best of my knowledge and every indication that's been given to us by the grain companies, no. They are unloading them as quickly as they possibly can and turning them around.

Agriculture committee  I can comment on that. Mr. Easter, what you're referring to is a process that actually was abandoned about 12 years ago. It was done basically in collaboration between the grain companies and the Canadian Wheat Board. They felt that keeping track of it was unfairly penalizing so

Agriculture committee  In terms of legislation or the order in council, we're not being called upon to report on it weekly. We'll be reporting on it monthly. No, it doesn't pose any problems. We have been reporting weekly to the federal government through this difficult period, but going forward, it wi

Agriculture committee  Presently what we report on is everything from the farm gate to the time that it gets loaded on the vessel, which includes the volumes in each section of the supply chain at the country elevator, on the railway, at the port, and with the vessel loading. We report on the performa

Agriculture committee  Yes, in essence, if we do not see the kind of performance we're hoping for from the railways, we're looking at a carry-out in excess of 20 million tonnes. If we have that, we're going to be carrying it forward into next year, and we're going to be in the same boat next year as we

Agriculture committee  I think I would challenge the point made about a problem with congestion in Vancouver. Our office is in regular contact with all the grain companies and the terminals in Vancouver and Prince Rupert, and I can say with certainty that they are not congested by any stretch of the im

Agriculture committee  Thank you.

Agriculture committee  I was done.

Agriculture committee  Thank you very much for the opportunity. I appreciate the invitation. My name is Mark Hemmes. I represent Quorum Corporation. Our company has been under contract with the federal government for the last 13 years as the grain monitor. In that capacity, we are charged with monitor

Agriculture committee  Yes. If you were to go back to 11 years ago, it would have been a very difficult data set to put together that would have been telling.... In the 11 years since then, railways have pretty much mechanized and systematized the car order process. It would be a much simpler thing to

Agriculture committee  In our role as the grain monitor, we strive to be neutral. I will try to give a balanced perspective. Basically, I will echo what I have heard from myriad people in the stakeholder community. First, from the railways' perspective, they don't expect any kind of regulation. From

Agriculture committee  The specifics of LLP and everything are outside of my bailiwick, but it is something that we've studied and it's something that we've watched. I don't have a lot to add to what Gordon had to say, but I would say that the focus has to be at the beginning of the supply chain, and

Agriculture committee  I don't know whether there's enough time to start on that.

Agriculture committee  Right now we go through ebbs and flows, the peaks and valleys, where we go from good performance to bad performance. One of the real tests, as we go into winter, for instance, in the grain industry is that the snow will fall, the trains will start to bog down, and there will be d