OTTAWA – Prairie farm lobbyists won’t have Nick Mulder to kick around much longer, and vice versa.
The federal deputy minister of transport has locked horns over the years with many prairie farm lobbyists as they tried to influence federal transportation policy.
Prime minister Jean ChrŽtien announced Dec. 6 that Mulder retires Jan. 20.
From early 1980s changes to the Crow Rate subsidy to the 1995 end of the Crow Benefit, sale of CN Rail and the 1996 rail deregulation, Mulder has been at the centre of federal transportation policy planning.
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He was blunt, decisive and not easy to influence once he decided what was correct.
Several generations of farm lobbyists found Mulder a less-than-sympathetic audience for their pleas that more attention be paid to the needs of rail-dependent grain farmers.
The last flare-up came just months ago as a lobby of commodity shippers, including grain, tried to convince Ottawa to change its Canada Transportation Act to give “captive shippers” more power to appeal railway service or tariffs.
Mulder basically told them he did not believe farmers are as “captive” to the railways as they make out and after years of grain transportation legislation being tilted toward farmer interests, it was time to pay more attention to railway needs.
“He was blunt and abrasive,” one grain sector lobbyist said after a particularly stormy meeting with Mulder. “He doesn’t seem to be a very good listener.”
In Ottawa, though, Mulder was seen as a good bureaucrat.
When he announced some senior changes in the civil service, ChrŽtien praised Mulder for his “dedication and outstanding service over the years.”
Experience in position
He will be replaced by Margaret Bloodworth, 47, who left a senior position with the Privy Council in October for several months of on-the-job training as associate deputy transport minister.
The prime minister also announced a former deputy minister of agriculture is rejoining the Ottawa bureaucracy.
Robert Wright, 45, is returning from his position as high commissioner to New Zealand to become deputy minister of national revenue.
Wright was deputy agriculture minister for two years, 1992-94, through the end of the world trade talks and the transition of government from Progressive Conservative to Liberal in 1993.
However, he suffered health problems and left the position as bureaucratic head of one of Ottawa’s largest government departments to become high commissioner to New Zealand.
