Agricore United and the Canadian Wheat Board are continuing to butt heads over the future of AU’s grain handling terminal in Vancouver.
The wheat board wants to have a say in what happens to the terminal.
The grain company says it’s none of the board’s business.
The spat between the two is documented in a series of legal briefs filed with the federal competition tribunal.
In one brief, AU says the board’s views are irrelevant to the issue before the tribunal and “will serve only to needlessly prolong and increase the cost of this proceeding.”
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In response, the board states that as a major user of the port and on behalf of western farmers, it has a direct interest in how much competition there is at the port.
“The applicant’s (AU’s) suggestion that the CWB has no right to intervene in this proceeding is, quite frankly, offensive,” said the board.
The competition tribunal is considering a request from AU that it overturn a 2002 order from the federal Competition Bureau directing the company to sell one of its terminals at the west coast port.
The tribunal, an independent quasi-judicial agency, has set an initial hearing date of Oct. 3 in Ottawa.
In its request for leave to intervene in the process, the CWB told the tribunal it has a vital interest in the level of grain handling competition at the West Coast.
However, AU says the board’s views are irrelevant to the specific issue before the tribunal, which is whether the grain company and the Competition Bureau would have signed the 2002 consent agreement under the circumstances that now exist at the port.
“AU submits that the CWB monopoly is not in a position to make relevant representations concerning the respective intentions of AU or the (Competition Bureau),” it said.
The grain company is asking the tribunal to set aside the consent order it signed with the Competition Bureau in October 2002, in which it agreed to sell the 102,070-tonne former United Grain Growers terminal.
Earlier this year the company reached a sales agreement with Terminal One Vancouver, a consortium of independent inland terminals, but Terminal One was unable to secure grain handling agreements with other suppliers to ensure the terminal’s viability.
AU asked the Competition Bureau to extend the Aug. 15 deadline for a sale to be consummated, but the bureau refused, prompting the Terminal One deal to fall through and AU to file its application before the bureau.
In that application the grain company says the grain handling market in Vancouver has become more competitive since the original order was issued and neither it nor the Competition Bureau would negotiate a similar agreement under current circumstances.
In seeking leave to intervene, the CWB said the competitive situation at the port has in fact worsened, pointing to increases in handling tariffs and vessel-loading charges with no improvement in the level or quality of service.
The Competition Bureau filed a brief supporting the CWB’s right to intervene in the case.
