Transport committee  Yes. I'm afraid that the railways have been monopolies for too long. They don't know how to compete. In the last panel they talked about losing about 2,000 cars. That's 200,000 tonnes. How many millions of tonnes do they move on an annual basis? The question from over here wa

Transport committee  If I might, there aren't enough trucks on the road in the Prairies to handle what would be needed under that 500 kilometres.

Transport committee  Exactly. For the 250 kilometres from the border, that would mean between half and two-thirds of the prairie grain would not be eligible for interswitch, which is unacceptable.

Transport committee  I understand them because I've been in this policy game for far too long, but as far as using them goes, I'm not a shipper. I can't use them unless I'm shipping a producer car directly.

Transport committee  Thank you for the question. Farmers are not considered shippers under the act, so we're in a unique position. We pay all the costs, but we have no rights when it comes to shipping. Monsieur Aubin asked about larger production. We are continually improving our production methods

Transport committee  It can. In the case of soybeans versus other crops, we're seeing that one railway will haul soybeans at the MRE rate, where the other railway hauls it at MRE plus $10 per tonne. In some cases that will affect where you haul your soybeans once you have produced them. Soybeans, can

Transport committee  Yes. Wade's right. Canola was a small crop 30 and 40 years ago, and it has become huge. Soybean is expanding exponentially every year. What's going to be the next one? We need a flexible way of getting new crops put under schedule II.

Transport committee  We have that opportunity. It's all on where they are going to market it and who they are going to get to ship it to, so you shop around just like you do if you're looking for a pair of shoes. You look for the best deal.

Transport committee  Yes. Also Wade talked about service. Many times we'll have a contract with one of his members for an October delivery, and if there is not the proper service, we could be waiting for January. We have financial commitments to meet yet we have no recourse because they have no recou

Transport committee  With the harvest that we're seeing right now in western Canada.... Maybe I'll back up just a little bit. Wade talked about the higher volumes of harvest that we've had over the last five to 10 years. A lot of that is because we actually had moisture. We had rainfalls over the las

Transport committee  Just about. I have just a short bit on the MRE. While maintaining the MRE is a must, individualizing the railway investment is a good move, but it defies logic that the legislation does not call for regular costing reviews. Tolerating a rail monopoly comes with an obligatory res

Transport committee  Thank you, Madam Chair. As introduced, I am Norm Hall. I'm the first vice-president of the Canadian Federation of Agriculture, but more importantly, I sit here as a farmer from western Canada, east-central Saskatchewan, Wynyard, on the largest saltwater lakes in Canada, which a