Transport committee  MAC is open to different options. We have developed a legal recommendation for the type of data that we would like to see disclosed, the frequency that we would like that data to be disclosed, how that data would be made publicly available, and what portions of that data are confidential and how that would go to shippers.

Transport committee  Fundamentally, what we perceive is a point of tension, and that point of tension is on a fault line of whether we veer toward network efficiency or whether we veer toward the common carrier obligation and the rights of the shipper. Our experience—in the last five years, anyway—has been an inability to reconcile those things.

Transport committee  I just want to say two things very briefly. I think the initiative that the grain industry has put together to assemble and produce performance metrics is commendable. The piece that I would underscore is missing, just for the committee's benefit, is capacity data. It's an equation, right?

Transport committee  I think some of the other commodity groups ship perhaps a little bit more extensively in the U.S. than we do, so maybe they'd be a better fit to answer that question.

Transport committee  Go ahead. I've taken up some time.

Transport committee  The only thing I would add is that what we mean by the words that we say is important. A huge part of service is capacity, meaning how many crews, how many locomotives, how many places are needed for that service to be most optimally balanced to meet network needs. That's the biggest question mark right now.

Transport committee  Sure. I can make a couple of points. Part of the reason our members feel so strongly about data disclosure for performance and capacity is that we don't know whether the claims the railways make are true. The railways can say that with this measure in place, we would have shipped the same amount of grain, but if you had asked the grain industry five years ago whether they were getting that level of service or not, the answer may have been very different.

Transport committee  A very short answer with respect to volume commitments? No. No, you cannot pick and choose winners and losers in the rail freight market. To link volume commitments with respect to broader overarching impact on the networks and data.... Currently, there is next to no capacity data available, so shippers don't know.

Transport committee  I will add very briefly to that. Part of the length of preparation and of the cost associated with preparing to take a case to the agency is developing the argument and narrative and producing the data that you're trying to use to affirm your position in the case. One very real thing that could be done to facilitate an equal footing or a closer balance in relationship to that bargaining process would be data disclosure.

Transport committee  I'm building off Lauren's point. Just for context, many mine sites operate in remote regions, and I'm aware of just two of 37 members at MAC who were able to take advantage of that measure. Our concern isn't so much about the principle of the policy; it's clearly understanding what the implications are should there be some broad overarching extension across the entire network.

Transport committee  Thank you. Ms. Chair, esteemed members, committee clerk, and fellow attendees, I'm Brendan Marshall, vice-president, economic and northern affairs, Mining Association of Canada. MAC is the national voice of Canada's mining and mineral processing industry, and we're pleased to appear and to discuss this important matter with you.