OTTAWA – Key players in the prairie grain hauling system have received questions from a parliamentary committee trying to discover who is to blame for the shortage of grain cars.
If the sub-committee looking into the future of the St. Lawrence Seaway does not like the answers it receives, officials from rail and grain companies and government agencies could find themselves summoned to Ottawa next week for a grilling.
The committee, headed by Thunder Bay Liberal Joe Comuzzi, began its work last week by agreeing that the shortage of rail cars to move grain has hurt both the Seaway system and prairie farmers.
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They said they want to get to the bottom of it, first with questions to players from the grain companies, the two railways, the Grain Transportation Agency and the Canadian Wheat Board.
Last Friday a set of six questions were faxed to the Prairies, with a request that replies be sent quickly.
The key questions are:
- Is there a real crisis or have the reports been over-blown?
- If so, what caused the crisis, how long has it existed and what should governments and industry do to solve it?
- What are the economic implications of the problem, both for exports and farmer income? If it is not corrected, what will be the longer-term consequences?
- How many cars are available, who owns them and how many are needed to do the job in an average year?
Comuzzi said last week representatives of the involved groups, companies and agencies will be summoned for questioning by MPs if the answers they send do not allow MPs to fully examine the issue.
“I expect we’ll be calling witnesses,” one MP said. “I expect their answers will be finger-pointing and ass-covering. We’ll want to get beyond that.”
