SASKATOON – Farmers won’t notice a thing when the grain industry takes over the rail car allocation process Aug. 1, says the head of the industry group in charge.
The industry’s long-term goal is to establish a more commercial, market-oriented transportation system, but it’s not going to happen overnight.
“There’s not going to be any revolutionary change,” said Greg Arason, chair of the Car Allocation Policy Group. “There’s just a gradual turning over of the responsibility to the industry and that’s fine.”
The beginning of the new crop year will mark the beginning of a new era in managing the grain transportation system. That’s when nearly 17 years of government control, through the old Grain Transportation Agency and more recently the Western Grain Transportation Office, comes to an end.
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It will replaced by CAPG, a four-member committee funded by the industry and made up of officials representing the railways, grain handlers, the Canadian Wheat Board and prairie farmers.
The group will set policy guidelines for moving prairie grain to market. A small staff will work out of a Winnipeg office to track the system.
Rule book ready
The group met last week to put the finishing touches on the new rule book to be presented to the grain industry’s Senior Executive Officers committee for final approval.
Agreement has been reached in most areas, including such things as operating rules, capacity planning, setting monthly performance targets, establishing priorities for different routes, dividing available cars between board and non-board grains and devising a constitution for CAPG.
In most of those areas there will be no significant changes, at least not right away.
But two key issues remained unresolved after last week’s meeting: How to settle disputes, and the exact role of the farmer representative in the group, including whether the farmer will be allowed a vote.
Farm groups are insisting their representatives have the same authority as the other CAPG members. Some industry groups say decisions affecting the commercial and business side of the transportation system should be left to corporate interests.
The issue was to go before the executive officers’ committee this week.
But Jim Robbins, the farmer representative on CAPG, said last week farmers won’t be satisfied with anything less than equal treatment.
“If the SEO simply reiterates its previous position, that the producer rep should have a voice but not a vote, I don’t think producers will just leave it there,” he said.
If the issue can’t be settled by Aug. 1, the rest of the package will still go into effect: “I don’t think anybody is interested in having this fall apart completely,” he said.
Arbitration suggested
As for the sticky issue of settling disputes over car allocation issues, it has been suggested that independent arbitration panels hear the case. If the outcome doesn’t satisfy the complainant, the case would be dealt with by the CAPG.
After that, the complainant would have to go to the Canadian Transportation Agency, although Arason said CAPG does not want to be a quasi-judicial body and will only work if everyone in the industry co-operates.
