SASKATOON – It seems to be a losing battle, but Victor Poier isn’t about to give up the fight to save his rail line and elevator.
“Even if we lose it, we can at least say we did everything we could,” the MacNutt, Sask. farmer said in an interview.
The 50-kilometre CN branch line that serves MacNutt, near the Manitoba border east of Yorkton, is one of 17 lines slated for abandonment this spring or summer.
The new Canadian Transportation Act says the lines can be abandoned 10 days after the act comes into force. The act received final approval from the House of Commons last week, but it won’t come into force until all the relevant regulations have been written, a process which sources say could run into May or June.
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The government has accepted recommendations from a special committee of the National Transportation Agency that the 17 light steel, grain dependent lines be abandoned. The government says the move will save $14 million to the grain transportation system.
On the hit list
That’s cold comfort to farmers like Suezette Reichert, who farms with her husband Harvey at Cactus Lake, Sask. The CN branch line that serves Cactus Lake is also on the hit list.
“The thing is the costs are incurred by us because we’ve got to still get our grain to market,” she said, adding they’ve decided to invest in a semi-trailer unit, figuring it’s only a matter of time before they’re selling their grain at more distant inland terminals.
And she added as local elevators close, customer loyalty could go with it. The Reicherts have always done business with Saskatchewan Wheat Pool, but if they can save a few dollars hauling to a competitor, they’ll probably do so in the future.
Poier, meanwhile, is hoping the line serving his area might be kept in service to ship grain to the port in Churchill, Man., adding the MacNutt pool elevator is only 10 years old and in good working order.
A special fast-track process was put in place last fall to make it easier for the railways to abandon the lines, but both CN and CP decided to wait until the new act took effect. That has left farmers and grain handlers in a state of uncertainty for the past few months.
Jim Feeny of CN Rail said he expects the lines will be abandoned as soon as legally possible, unless something “really extraordinary” takes place.
Officials from both railways said they’ll make arrangements with grain companies to remove grain from elevators on the lines to be abandoned.
Under the new legislation, the railways will also publish a document outlining what they plan to do with their rail lines during the next three years.
While the railways won’t speculate on those plans, one grain company official says he expects a number of prairie branch lines will be included on the list.
“How quickly they’ll move on specific lines, your guess is as good as mine,” said Ron Weik, transportation co-ordinator for Saskat-chewan Wheat Pool.
Under the new legislation, the railways must advertise for 60 days that they want to get rid of a line. If a short-line operator declares an interest in buying it, the two sides have four months to reach an agreement.
If no deal can be reached, the line must be offered for sale to the federal, provincial and then local governments. If they don’t want it, the line can be abandoned.
