A two-hour meeting with Willard Estey last week didn’t allay any of Saskatchewan Wheat Pool’s concerns with his recommendations for changing the grain handling and transportation system.
“Our position didn’t change as a result of this,” said pool vice-president Marvin Wiens.
The pool’s board met with the retired Supreme Court justice during a special session on Jan. 19. The board also met that day with senior Canadian Wheat Board officials to get their take on Estey’s recommendations.
Wiens said the conversation with Estey focused on three of his most controversial recommendations: Removing the maximum rate cap; ending the board’s role in transportation; and ending third-party allocation of rail cars.
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“We had a chance to get some clarification on some of the recommendations and to listen to his thinking behind some of them,” said Wiens. “But I don’t think we really learned anything new.”
Estey has come under fire from some farm groups over his rate cap proposal, which was adopted from a CP Rail paper submitted late in the review. In return for removal of the cap, the railways would guarantee a reduction in the total freight bill over a certain period of time.
Some groups have complained they had no chance to review or comment on the idea.
“He argued exactly what the railroads are arguing, that if you introduce competition and remove the rate cap, the total freight costs to farmers would decline,” said Wiens.
But that wasn’t enough to satisfy the pool’s board, which issued a statement after the meeting reiterating its view that Estey’s report doesn’t do enough to protect producers or stimulate increased competition.
The pool says it opposes removing the rate cap until there is a detailed proposal outlining exactly how the system will work.
In a news release, the company urged federal transport minister David Collenette to immediately initiate discussions in the industry to develop a low-cost system that produces efficiency gains for all players, including farmers.
