Grain Growers of Canada has withdrawn its complaint against what it considers to be flaws in the Canadian Grain Commission’s consultation process about user fee increases.
The commission has recommended significant increases in fee-for-service charges this year.
It is under pressure from the federal government to raise more money and end the annual government subsidy needed to cover costs since user fees were frozen almost two decades ago.
Agriculture minister Gerry Ritz has signaled that he will approve higher fees, although likely not full cost recovery that would almost triple user fee income.
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The farm lobby had argued the consultation process on fee increases was flawed and the commission should be modernized to reduce costs before fee increases are authorized.
In July, it withdrew its objection.
Executive director Richard Phillips said sending the proposed fee increases to a tribunal hearing was doomed to fail.
“It was going to cost us a bunch of money to go through a tribunal process hearing, which at most would delay things another 30 days while they re-did the second part of the consultations,” he said.
“But at the end of the day, they would proceed.”
The grain growers group argues that user fees should not be increased until commission practices are revised to eliminate unnecessary costs.
For example, an earlier Conservative government proposal, scuttled by the opposition, would have ended inward inspection that requires weighing and inspection of grain moving from company terminals on the Prairies to their terminals at port.
Grain Growers says that costs a farm producing 2,000 tonnes of grain as much as $2,800 each year. The cost is now largely picked up by the commission, but would be transferred to farmers if the rules are changed.
The lobby group also wants the government to retain the requirement that elevators be bonded to cover farmers when an elevator is unable to pay for delivered product.
Ritz says he wants to bring Canada Grain Act amendments forward again now that the Conservatives have a majority, but he has not committed to doing it this year while ending the Canadian Wheat Board’s monopoly is the priority.
Phillips said the Grain Growers’ complaint pushed the plan to raise user fees into the spring election campaign, which delayed it a further four months while the group lobbied Ritz to first change the commission’s mandate.
Phillips said Ritz’s refusal to commit to that move in the short term left the grain commission with little option but to advocate fee increases because it is under orders to balance the books without annual government subsidies.
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