By Brian Cross
Saskatoon newsroom
There are ongoing problems with the way railway performance is reported and monitored says the organization representing Western Canada’s largest grain handling companies.
Wade Sobkowich, executive director with the Western Grain Elevators Association, says WGEA members, which include Viterra, Cargill and Richardson, still don’t understand fully the methods Canada’s major railways companies use to report weekly grain movement.
Sobkowich said grain companies have no opportunity to view or scrutinize the weekly grain shipment reports that the railways prepare and submit to government.
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Federal bureaucrats use the reports to determine whether railway companies are meeting federally-imposed grain shipment targets and whether they should be fined for failing to meet those targets.
Sobkowich said the WGEA should at least have an opportunity to scrutinize the reporting procedures and identify areas where accuracy might be breaking down.
“We don’t … see the information that the railways are providing to Transport Canada,” Sobkowich told the Western Producer.
“It’s a black hole to us and when we ask for the information to be made available … we are not getting that from Transport Canada.”
WGEA recently wrote to Transport Canada asking for an opportunity to review railway data and reporting methodologies.
Ottawa denied that request but has since indicated that it will levy fines against CN for failing to meet the weekly grain shipping targets.
“We had suspected that both CN and CP were not meeting the volume thresholds for a number of weeks now,” said Sobkowich.
“That prompted us to write the federal government in August and ask for greater transparency on the numbers.
Sobkowich said WGEA was “pleasantly surprised” by Ottawa’s decision to levy fines against CN.
But problems with the reporting system still must be addressed.
“We don’t have transparency on those numbers and that’s really the crux of the problem,” Sobkowich said.
“We really need the ability to scrutinize that information or at a minimum know the process that Transport Canada is using to properly audit the information and … put it up against a reasonableness test.”
Sobkowich said fluidity in the grain transportation system has improved but the current backlog of railcars — the number requested by grain companies minus the number delivered by railways — is in the range of 20,000 to 25,000.
“Demand for railcars still exceeds the supply,” he said.
