Ron Longstaffe hopes poor performance by the grain handling and transportation industry this past winter doesn’t push trading routes south.
More north-south trade is a concern, said Longstaffe, chair of the Vancouver Port Corporation.
“You cannot have the sort of performance we had this last winter,” he told reporters at a conference in Regina.
More than 40 ships were waiting to load and the cost of the delay is estimated at $100 million.
“The cost of demurrage on these vessels for the prairie farmer is not an acceptable expense,” he said. “We simply have to put more accountability in the system.”
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Although the port was not at fault – there were no labor problems or delays at the terminals – Longstaffe said the situation reflected on everyone involved with grain movement.
“We want people to use the port of Vancouver because it’s their best choice, which means we don’t expect them to use it because they wrap themselves in the Canadian flag or because they’re subsidized to use the port, as they used to be, or because they’re legislated to use it,” he said.
“We’ve got to gain the traffic because we have the best facilities, the most competitive rates and the best delivery system to get the grain to the port of Vancouver.”
Winter every year
Longstaffe said changes have to be made because winter is going to come again.
Discussion of the grain backlog was on the agenda during a closed session that included Saskatchewan Wheat Pool and the two major railways.
“These sessions are sometimes bruising but they’re all aimed at improving the delivery system and the performance of the port,” Longstaffe said.
Saskatchewan premier Roy Romanow told the conference that two-way trade between Saskatchewan and North Dakota increased from $175 million in 1992 to $450 million last year, but he still favors moving products west.
“To me, the port of Vancouver for Saskatchewan is both the sentimental and the economic attachment and that’s where our basic trust is for the provincial government,” Romanow said.
Longstaffe said keeping traffic in Canada means saving jobs and money.
