GLASLYN, Sask. – It was another meeting for farmers to bemoan the state of the western grain transportation system.
And many farmer representatives said something had to be done to make it better.
But that wasn’t good enough for Medstead farmer Ken Arsenault.
“I’ve been going to meetings for five years now, since the first inkling of this came down,” said Arsenault, reeve of the Medstead rural municipality.
“I’m tired of fighting with CN and Sask Wheat Pool and Pioneer and whoever else. It’s the same thing over and over and over again.”
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The meeting held in this northwestern Saskatchewan town was set up by the Saskatchewan highways department to gather farmer opinions to send to the Estey review, which is studying the transportation issue.
Arsenault’s frustration was echoed by others, who said after years of talk about setting up short-line railways and making the system work for farmers, almost nothing has been accomplished.
But Ron Gleim, a Chaplin farmer, who has worked to set up short lines across Saskatchewan, said the next six to eight months will determine whether any producer-owned short lines will arise.
“There are some good lines on the market,” he said.
Armand Roy, the chair of the Western Rail Coalition, which represents most of the groups trying to start short-line railways in Western Canada, said he also thinks the next few months could see the beginnings of producer-owned short lines.
Or it may bring the end of the dream.
At one point Arsenault suggested farmers do an end run around the elevator-rail system by sending 1,000 grain-filled trucks directly to Vancouver.
“It’s going to wake up a hell of a lot of people who have nothing to do with the grain transportation system if we get 1,000 trucks into downtown Vancouver at rush hour,” said Arsenault.
He said truckers have told him they could ship a load of grain to Vancouver for $55/tonne. That’s not much more than the sum of elevation charges and the freight rate.
“Somehow we have to direct what we have under our control,” said Arsenault. “We don’t have the railways or the elevator companies under our control.
“All we control are the roads and the trucks.”
