Canadian National Railway vice-president Ross Goldsworthy insists that the farmer coalition trying to take control of 12,000 government-owned grain hopper cars is sharply underestimating maintenance costs, making the coalition proposal impractical.
But then he irritated MPs during an appearance before the House of Commons transport committee by refusing to say what CN considers the real costs.
“It is, from our perspective, confidential and commercially sensitive information because if these cars do in fact come into a bidding process, that information will form part of our proposal,” he said Feb. 2 during a Parliament Hill appearance.
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“What I can tell you is that we certainly spend what’s required to keep the cars in good condition and in our view, it’s greater than the $1,500 that’s been bandied about by other parties.”
Marcella Szel, vice-president of Canadian Pacific Railway said the company has provided an average maintenance cost figure to Transport Canada and she would make it available to the committee. She did not do it publicly.
Rookie Saskatchewan Conservative MP Dave Batters said CN was doing itself no favours by being secretive and expecting MPs to take it on faith that the Farmer Rail Car Coalition is using an unrealistic maintenance cost.
The FRCC is on Parliament Hill again this week promising to lower grain freight rates if it can take ownership of the cars for a nominal fee and then pass on maintenance savings to farmers by spending just $1,500 per year per car instead of the $4,300 now built into the revenue cap.
“It would be incumbent on you to prove that it is higher than that,” Batters told Goldsworthy. “It could help your case, sir.”
Manitoba New Democrat Bev Desjarlais said she had “a hard time believing” the railways’ claim that they did not have maintenance cost records for each car but merely averages.
Later, Batters told senior Transport Canada officials the issue of the maintenance cost is the crux of the debate about what happens to the government hopper car fleet.
“The FRCC claims that the maintenance cost on these cars is roughly $1,500 per year. If that is the case, my producers in Palliser (riding) have been overcharged for a dozen years in terms of how much it’s cost to transport their grain,” he said.
“If it is $4,300, then the FRCC’s plan simply doesn’t work. It’s not a feasible business plan.”
Kristine Burr, assistant deputy transport minister, told MPs the department still has not finished work aimed at determining the real cost of maintaining the 12,000 cars, now between 20 and 30 years old. She also said the department will not receive an inspection report on what work is needed on the cars until at least the end of March.
However, she said the FRCC business plan is “workable” but the department has not been able to produce an analysis of a second rival group bidding to take ownership of the cars Ñ a last minute bid by a group representing grain commodity groups and elevators Ñ because it is too vague to be fully assessed.
She gave no indication the government decision will be taken soon, despite a promise last year by transport minister Jean Lapierre that he wanted the issue before cabinet last December and hoped for a decision early this year.
