As he eyed a pile of scrap that was once the Viterra elevator in Arborg, Man., Dave Shott was unable to contain his anger.
“I’m sitting here looking at it and there’s three 35,000 bushel bins …. They’ve torn down two now and basically just crumpled them …. It’s just ludicrous,” the grain producer said April 29 during a telephone interview.
“In a day of reuse and recycle, it’s a just a travesty that they would put all of this into a big ball and haul it to the dump.”
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Losing the elevator service is not the primary source of frustration for Shott and other Interlake producers because Arborg lost its rail line earlier this decade and Viterra had already stopped operating the facility.
What surprised them was Viterra’s decision to knock the elevator down instead of selling it, or parts of it, to people in the community.
“There was no dialogue whatsoever …. There wasn’t any chance of tendering anything out of that elevator,” said Shott, who often used strong language to depict what he called Viterra’s “arrogance”.
“They just weren’t very good corporate citizens.”
Shott said Viterra had leased the elevator to Puratone before the demolition.
Viterra didn’t respond to requests for a comment, other than to say by e-mail that the elevator was closed Nov. 30, 2002.
Shott said there were alternatives to demolition. A biodiesel plant in the region could have used the components, or a feed mill or large farm operation could have used the building for storage.
Harold Foster, reeve of the Rural Municipality of Bifrost, called Viterra’s decision “ultimate stupidity.”
“They’d rather pay $70,000, or whatever they’re paying, to demolish it (than sell it),” he said.
“It’s a perfectly good elevator …. It’s probably got another 40 years of life.”
According to Foster, Viterra said it wasn’t possible to sell the elevator or its components because of environmental and liability issues.
Shott said the demolition has prompted many producers in the region to buy their inputs from a different supplier. It likely won’t make a huge difference to Viterra’s bottom line, he added, but it feels good.
Foster said Paterson Grain continues to operate its elevator in Arborg.
“Paterson’s are everybody’s favourite grain company right now.”
