A spirit of co-operation is needed to solve the grain transportation crisis, say farm groups, but bickering over who’s to blame continues to permeate the issue.
The Canadian Wheat Board’s complaint of poor service by the railways “won’t move a single bushel of grain” but it will stretch the already strained relationships between stakeholders, said Larry Maguire of the Western Canadian Wheat Growers Association.
He accused the board of using the complaint to deflect responsibility from its role in the backlog.
“While we dicker away with knee-jerk reactions in Canada customers go elsewhere for products and we all lose out,” he said.
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After a trip to the West Coast by WCWGA officials, the group called for an emergency summit to solve the grain transportation crisis.
The wheat growers are prepared to organize the summit, to be held as soon as possible after seeding, to include farmers, governments and all groups involved in the movement of prairie grain.
Maguire said the association is aware of new CTA legislation, but the action will result in finger-pointing rather than solutions.
Chris Tait, vice-president of the National Farmers Union, said the board’s action should be applauded by all sectors of the prairie grain industry. A third party investigation is the first step to a solution, he said.
“Everyone is pointing fingers in different directions and it is our suspicion that the railways are the real culprits here and hopefully the facts will come out which prove that.”
The NFU supports the board’s move, he said, but did not consider lodging a complaint on its own.
“Our own workload is large enough that we didn’t consider doing it ourselves,” he said. “They are obviously the people on the front lines of moving farmers’ grain so they’re the people to know where to start.”
