Transport committee  Just to expand on that very quickly, if you recall the previous witnesses you had, you had the map of the Canadian system up there on the screen. You'll notice that the Canadian railroads control an awful lot of track in the United States. Essentially, the recommendation would

Transport committee  They'd all be American. There are four or five competitors that we have in the United States. There are no other Canadian manufactures.

Transport committee  We're looking for any opportunity there is to replace the existing fleet.

Transport committee  Further, if I may add, the United States, which is a great competitor of Canada in world markets, spends billions of dollars in subsidies with their agricultural community in the form of price supports, subsidies to not plant in order to raise prices, and all those sorts of thing

Transport committee  Traditionally the United States has had seven years of straight-line depreciation on railroad equipment. In Canada, six or seven years ago, it was 23 years. We fought like hell to get it down to 15 years. The United States, in this recession, went to 100% write-off in the year th

Transport committee  That's fine.

Transport committee  Thank you for the congratulations.

Transport committee  Yes, but at the same time we want to continue to be able to export—

Transport committee  We want to continue to be able to export efficiently, and that's what we're trying to illustrate here.

Transport committee  No, we deal with all of the major class 1s and short-line railroads and leasing companies in both the United States and Canada, as well as shippers in the U.S., grain cooperatives and the like.

Transport committee  It's done privately, Mr. Chairman, in the United States. But there is a whole different tax regimen there that is completely different from Canada's. You write off a railcar. This year, anyone who buys a railcar in the United States can write off 50%.

Transport committee  If you'll allow me to continue, please, the fact of the matter is a decision needs to be made with respect to the obsolete equipment that's being used right now. We're proposing that the obsolete equipment be scrapped and replaced with new modern and efficient equipment for the

Transport committee  I would point out that National Steel Car is the world leader in container cars. We also manufacture those double-stack container cars for carrying the exact containers that you're talking about. What we're proposing here is something to assist a situation in which the governmen

Transport committee  Well, the government did own as many as 23,000 or 24,000 grain cars.

Transport committee  I can't answer that question. I think this goes back to the Crow rate and maintaining subsidies for Canadian farmers and protecting the Canadian farmer from transportation costs that could have been deemed to be too high.