The federal government was decidedly cool last week to the call by western provinces for an inquiry into the grain hauling system’s poor performance this winter.
From agriculture minister Ralph Goodale through transport minister David Anderson, the message was that things are getting better without the need for an inquiry.
If all parties continue to co-operate, the backlog will be cleared up.
“I am in discussion with them (prairie ministers) as to whether that is the best approach,” Anderson told the House of Commons March 17. “Our objective in this government is to come up with new approaches which will prevent the kind of delays we have had this winter.”
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Meanwhile, a tempest blew up on Parliament Hill last week when it was reported that one of the new approaches the transport minister is considering could be further rail deregulation.
In an interview published in a financial newspaper, Anderson speculated that he might want to re-examine lifting the cap on grain freight rates before the scheduled 1999 review.
The freight cap was a compromise offered to grain producers two years ago when legislation deregulating the railways worked its way through Parliament.
The minister could not be reached for further comment but Stan Keyes, parliamentary spokesperson for Anderson, suggested the minister’s comments on an early review of the freight rate cap may have been presented stronger than he intended.
That was not how outspoken Liberal MP Wayne Easter saw it.
The former co-chair of a House of Commons committee on grain transportation said he confronted the transport minister about the published comments and Anderson stood his ground.
Easter said an early review of the freight rate cap built into the Canada Transportation Act would be a breach of the deal reached with grain shippers when the legislation was passed two years ago.
“Putting the freight cap in until the review in 1999 was a hard-won concession to give the farm community some assurance the government wasn’t giving everything away to the railways,” the MP said in an interview. “To raise it now is a non-starter. In an election year, it would be an explosive issue.”
Easter said he can see the hand of the railways behind Anderson’s speculation.
“The railways have been lobbying hard in Ottawa, they have lobbied me and others, to have the freight cap lifted,” he said. “They say if it was gone, they could perform better. I have seen no evidence of that.”
Instead, Easter and some other MPs are working on private member’s bills which would impose penalties on the railways if they did not move grain to port.
Reform party agriculture spokesperson Elwin Hermanson offered a cautious response to Anderson’s comments.
He said he would support an early review of the freight cap, as long as regulations were in place to reward efficiency and punish inefficiency in the system.
“Without that, it leaves the industry pretty vulnerable,” he said. “But you can’t look at the transport system without looking at the freight cap.”
