Last week’s news of a $2.59 a tonne cut in grain freight rates signaled the culmination of a 12-year campaign by the Farmer Rail Car Coalition.
It will also bring to an end Sinclair Harrison’s 12 years as chair of the FRCC.
“This is a good time to exit, on a positive note,” Harrison said in an interview last week. “It’s fantastic news.”
The Canadian Transport Agency ordered a $72.2 million reduction in the 2008-09 revenue cap, which works out to $2.59 a tonne.
The reduction reflects that fact that the railways spend about $3,000 a year less on hopper car maintenance than they receive under the revenue cap, an issue that originally came to public attention through work by the FRCC in the late 1990s.
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Harrison recently informed the coalition’s member organizations that he would stay on as chair until the hopper car issue was resolved.
With both national railways saying they will launch legal appeals against the CTA’s decision, that means Harrison will remain as chair for a few more months.
“I told them I’d see this through to the end, so I guess that’s what I’ll do,” he said.
The coalition, consisting of 17 farm and municipal groups from across Western Canada, tried unsuccessfully to buy the federal government’s fleet of grain hopper cars.
At one time the FRCC operated with an annual budget of $250,000 to $300,00, with funds from members and the Saskatchewan, Manitoba and federal governments.
The organization still exists on a shoestring budget as an advocate for farmers’ interest on rail transportation issues.
Harrison said the future of the group is up in the air.
“Unless we can find a source of significant funding, we won’t be able to take on issues like this, much to the joy of the railways.”
That would be a shame, he said, noting that the government will soon do a review of railway service to the grain industry.
Harrison said it’s not easy for farmers to stay on top of rail issues.
“The rail industry is very complex, with lots of confidentiality and lots of things that need to be discussed and brought to the surface,” he said, adding that in its hey-day the FRCC was able to hire high-priced experts.
Coalition members expect to make a decision in late March whether to continue and if so, in what form.
