Agriculture committee  Let me explain it to you this way. As long as things are in sync and we're now in the spring and summer months, the 11,000 is something we can do. What happens if you're in the winter and everything goes down by 10% to 20% for a week or two weeks? What do you do during that week?

Agriculture committee  Let me give you one example. You heard Mr. Sobkowich, for instance, say that we should have liquidated damage to pay for the ship demurrage. Well, if the grain elevator company ordered too many ships, more ships than they are able to unload, who should pay the liquidated damage

Agriculture committee  And set proper expectations.

Agriculture committee  I can tell you one thing. We are about 3,000 carloads from moving the record amount of grain in our historical crop to date.

Agriculture committee  No, I'm getting there. By the time the year is over, we will have shattered all records ever in moving grain this year. I can tell you that, because we're almost there as we speak, despite a very difficult winter. As for winter, every year we go back to the well and try to find

Agriculture committee  I would say that we're finding out about the government's intentions in the news. Like most other stakeholders, we've been asked for our position, but there's not been an opportunity to sit down and discuss, for instance, with the grain elevators and the rail industry, whether it

Agriculture committee  Our plan is to move 5,500 cars as soon as possible. We've been saying that for two months, well before the order in council came in. We believe that with 5,500 cars at CN, which means something like 10,500 or 11,000 for the industry, we would most likely exceed the capability of

Agriculture committee  We are, for sure. Until winter takes a little bite of our performance next year, we've provided our plans. As soon as the weather breaks, 5,500. We're well on our way to doing that, and we'll keep it that way as long as they can load and unload them. I think that what we're goi

Agriculture committee  I would say it's as realistic as wishing winter away. It takes hindsight, and it was growing in the backyard of all the grain players who are today accusing us of failing the country. All I'm saying is if we're so bad, what were you doing in August? There was nine million tonnes

Agriculture committee  I think the order in council is helpful to rally all the players, and we are going to meet that order in council and then some. It's a “blunt instrument”, but I can understand the crisis out there, and we're prepared to live with it and move the traffic according to it. I do ha

Agriculture committee  I can tell you one thing: at CN we moved the equivalent of 63 million tonnes last year. We can move next year on last year's assets. So we are able to surge, and we surge from year to year because grain moves up and down. It has always been like that. We've never had any crop tha

Agriculture committee  I would say the following. Keith used to be my COO, and we did that, so we can take credit for that while he was at CN, and I know they're doing it at CP. We've actually expanded the concept of service level agreements across Canada. It's caught on like wildfire in the intermodal

Agriculture committee  We do have plans and we meet the demand every year in grain, except in exceptional circumstances like this year. It's not perfect. People would like us to surge even more in the fall and park cars in the summer. We have to find the right balance. In terms of moving grain, the ave

Agriculture committee  We're providing you with a short presentation, in both languages. I don't intend to go through all of it, but I thought it would help to frame the issue. It's been a very difficult winter, and I think it's important that we follow the facts if we want to make the right policy. Th

Transport committee  If it's there.