It took MPs on the House of Commons transport committee just 15 minutes last week to give shippers a complete victory in their campaign to get stronger shippers’ rights legislation in place in the face of opposition from the railways.
This week, the bill will be debated and approved in the Commons. It will be sent to the Liberal-dominated Senate where promoters of the bill expect pro-railway sentiment to be stronger and progress to be slower.
If there is a winter election, the bill may not make it into law.
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The Conservatives are warning Liberal senators that they should quickly approve the legislation or be accused of thwarting the will of prairie and other commodity shippers to gain greater market power.
When MPs met to consider amendments to the Canada Transportation Act that would give shippers more rights to challenge railway fees and service, they faced suggestions from the railways that key proposals were unnecessary.
The railways in an earlier appearance had proposed three amendments to weaken the essential provisions of the bill, arguing that the balance of power between railways and shippers was just fine:
- They argued that proposals to end the need for shippers to prove the potential for substantial commercial harm before they could challenge railway rules were unnecessary.
- They wanted stricter rules around the ability of shippers to band together to challenge the railways.
- They said the proposal to give shippers the right to challenge non-freight rate “ancillary” charges is unnecessary.
MPs meeting Dec. 4 didn’t discuss the railways’ proposed amendments. Instead, they approved Bill C-8, which would force railways to give a longer notice of branch line abandonment and require compensation for three years to municipalities on prairie grain lines that are abandoned.
The proposed amendments, which now go back to the Commons for final debate, would significantly increase the ability of shippers acting alone or in concert to challenge railway charges, including the ability to act in a group to ask for final offer arbitration.
A key promise is that 30 days after the legislation is passed into law, an extensive level-of-service review will be launched.
