Thank you for the invitation to appear today. I'll be sharing my time with my colleague, Gayle.

CCGA represents Canada's 40,000 canola farmers on any issues that impact their on-farm profitability. With offices in Winnipeg and Ottawa, CCGA is also the largest administrator of the advance payments program.

The canola sector contributes $43.7 billion a year to the Canadian economy and provides for 206,000 jobs. Exports were valued at $15.8 billion in 2023. Canola was also one of the top-earning commodities for farmers in 2023, with $13.7 billion in farm cash receipts.

Canola farmers face both opportunities and challenges. We've broken down our opening remarks into five recommendations.

One is about transportation and labour. Of canola grown in Canada, 90% is destined for export. Rail is the only practical means to move canola from areas of production to export position. In Canada, we have two class I railways, which operate effectively as geographic monopolies.

In the short term, we ask that the extended interswitching pilot, introduced in budget 2023, be expanded to a 500-kilometre radial distance and extended a further 30 months with a path to permanency. This is to account for the grain industry's seasonality and contracting timelines, giving more businesses a chance to participate in providing an accurate dataset for the pilot's evaluation. Taking this action will cost the federal government no money.

In the longer term, we do need to address the frequent and now perennial labour disruptions we see at Canada's ports and with our railways. According to the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, 2023 saw the most days lost due to labour disruptions since 1986.

Our second ask would be to pass Bill C-234.

As co-chair of the Agriculture Carbon Alliance, a coalition of 16 national farm groups, I was disappointed to see the Senate amend Bill C-234. That being said, the amended bill does provide relief to farmers and ranchers through exemptions for grain drying, irrigation and feed preparation, for which there are no viable alternatives. CCGA would like to see Bill C-234 passed at the next opportunity.

It's over to you, Gayle.