It was purely coincidental, but CP Rail vice-president Rick Sallee hopes it’s a good omen.
The day after the Canadian Wheat Board won its fight to have CP found guilty of failing to provide adequate grain service in the winter of 1996-97, Sallee found himself in a place some might describe as behind enemy lines: The board’s head offices in Winnipeg.
The Oct. 1 meeting between railway and CWB officials had been arranged weeks ago, a routine meeting to talk about grain shipping in the coming year.
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But it also provided Sallee and board officials with a chance to talk about what the Canadian Transportation Agency had said the previous day.
“It was coincidence, but it was actually good because it brought us together quickly after the decision,” he said in an interview the next day.
The railway’s vice-president for agri-products declined to say with whom he had met or what had been said about the CTA ruling, joking that they were shaking hands, not throwing punches.
But he did say that despite the lengthy legal battle and occasional hard feelings, the events of the last 18 months should be put to rest quickly.
“The relationship has been pretty good as we have all waited for the decision,” he said. “But the opportunity for it to deteriorate is there and I’m just saying, and I’m pretty sure the wheat board would say the same thing, we don’t want that to happen.
“We hope that what happened is not a stumbling block,” he said. “I don’t think it is.”
In its decision, the agency said CP discriminated against grain in favor of other commodities like coal and said it expects the company to be guided by that finding in its future activity.
But Sallee, who was CP’s point man in the CTA battle and attended almost every one of the 32 days of public hearings, continued last week to insist CP didn’t discriminate and won’t act differently in the future.
The company has always given high priority to grain, its biggest single commodity, he said, adding the railway will work hard to get that message out to counter bad publicity arising from the CTA decision.
