OTTAWA – The prairie wheat pools are urging the federal government not to sell its fleet of 13,000 grain hopper rail cars for five years.
The recommendation, made by Prairie Pools Inc. when the House of Commons finance committee held a public hearing in Edmonton, and by Saskatchewan Wheat Pool to the same committee in Regina, is a blow to a coalition of prairie farm groups trying to buy the cars.
Sinclair Harrison, head of the farmer rail-car coalition and president of the Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities, immediately charged the pool leaders do not speak for their members on the issue.
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Harrison said in an interview from Saskatoon he is confident a large majority of prairie farmers support farmer ownership of the rail cars.
“If Saskatchewan Pool or any of the pools argue they speak for farmers on this issue and producers don’t want to buy the cars, I take issue with them,” he said.
Prairie pool chair John Pearson said in an interview a five-year delay in the sale would remove some potential confusion from the grain transportation picture.
It would give Ottawa time to complete a planned 1999 review of new transportation rules and by 2001, the existing operating agreement giving railways right of first refusal in any sale would have ended.
Pearson also said the pools are uneasy that service to some elevators might decline if the cars went to a new owner “that maybe doesn’t have the same degree of focus in terms of effectively operating an efficient transportation system in Canada.”
In Regina, Saskatchewan Wheat Pool executive assistant Dan Schmeiser told MPs a delay also could give the federal government the chance to charge more money for the cars.
He said early sale through a bidding process “will lead to bids that will be well below the cars’ assessed value …. Delaying the sale to a later point when the long-term regulatory environment is more clear will better position potential purchasers to assess the true value of the cars.”
Harrison said the position of the pools contradicts a letter he has received from Manitoba Pool Elevators supporting the farmer purchase bid.
And he said he expects there will be substantial support at the Saskatchewan Wheat Pool annual meeting next week for a resolution supporting farmer ownership of the cars.
In Ottawa, the pools’ public plea for a delay in selling the cars complicates agriculture minister Ralph Goodale’s life somewhat.
He has been lobbying within his own government for the producer bid and the pools’ proposal for a delay, along with their pointed refusal to back the producer coalition, will raise some eyebrows in the transport and finance departments about how much prairie support Goodale’s preferred option really has.
