If farmers around Brandon are getting short-changed, someone’s going to have to answer to the entire community, said the city’s business lobby.
The southwestern Manitoba city’s economy is driven by farming, and that’s why local Chamber of Commerce officials are ready to throw their support behind a growing number of players in the agriculture industry demanding an immediate solution to the grain transportation crisis.
“If we’re talking about millions of dollars not coming into this community, that pretty well affects everybody in some shape or form,” said Todd Lumbard, president of the Brandon Chamber of Commerce.
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Chamber manager Lee Jebb said close to 70 percent of the association’s members represent businesses directly related to agriculture.
According to earlier reports, delayed shipments to international wheat customers have resulted in demurrage charges of $65 million that must be paid by farmers.
The chamber will ask its umbrella organization to support a resolution calling on the federal government to conduct an immediate federal inquiry into finding ways to minimize grain transportation inefficiencies.
Lumbard said he’s confident the resolution will pass when the Canadian Chamber of Commerce holds its annual meeting this week in Saskatoon.
But it could be an uphill battle convincing the eastern-dominated lobby group to step into the ring of what has been called a western Canadian problem.
“Their feeling may be that our resolution is a bit narrow in the national scope, but our feeling is that they might be a little short on agriculture,” Lumbard said.
Looking for support
The Brandon group has been drumming up support for the resolution from chamber organizations across the Prairies in the months leading up to the annual meeting.
It also plans to ask the national body to establish an agriculture committee.
“So much of this trickles down so we’ll be going right back to the fact of how much this means to our economy,” Lumbard said.
He added that he hopes the move will help push Ottawa and all parties to come up with a solution to a problem farmers had no role in creating.
“Why should our farmers have to pay for it if someone else is unable to fulfill their role in the transportation of grain?” Lombard said.
The Canadian Chamber of Commerce meets Sept. 14-16 in Saskatoon.
