Grain shippers say they fear the federal government is preparing to backtrack on promises it made last spring to force the railways to improve their performance.
Those fears weren’t assuaged by seemingly reassuring words from the transport minister.
Lawrence Cannon recently told the House of Commons that the government will introduce a bill sometime this fall to deal with shipper complaints about poor service.
He said the bill will reflect a consensus of the views expressed during a May 5 meeting between shippers and Transport Canada, prompted by ongoing complaints about rail service, especially concerning Canadian National Railway.
Read Also
Ag ministers hear request for regulatory change, more infrastructure development
Canada’s agriculture ministers met today in Winnipeg after postponing their usual July in-person meeting due to wildfires.
“The government assures shippers it takes their concerns very seriously and will be proceeding with a bill on a priority basis.”
However, officials representing the grain industry and other shippers say their concerns won’t be eased until they see the bill.
Wade Sobkowich of the Western Grain Elevator Association said shippers remain concerned it will be watered down, based on conversations with Transport Canada officials.
“It seems that our requests for improvements are being pushed off the table and won’t be fully addressed by the new legislation,” he said, adding the bill will be acceptable only if it mirrors the May 5 agreement.
“That’s our bottom line,” he said.
“We had a much longer list of issues, which the government pared down to the May 5 agreement, which we accepted begrudgingly.”
In return, the shippers wrested a pledge that within 30 days of passage of the bill the government would launch an independent review of level of service provisions. Without such a review, the government wouldn’t have to revisit the legislation for eight years.
Sobkowich said the commitment for a review was crucial to the shippers agreeing to drop some of their demands and support the compromise bill.
Details of the bill haven’t been released, but it’s expected to outline changes to make it easier for small shippers to qualify for final offer arbitration to settle service disputes and to introduce changes to rules governing interswitching between railways. Sobkowich said rules to prevent service problems from developing in the first place are also needed.
In negotiating the May 5 agreement, the shippers agreed to drop several requests. A crucial one was that railways and grain companies be held equally accountable. For example, if grain companies are required to load rail cars within 24 hours of being delivered to a country elevator, then railways should be required to deliver all the cars they say they’re going to deliver at the proper time.
Canadian Wheat Board director Ian McCreary said the railways circulated an alternative proposal to the May 5 agreement in recent months, but it was of no interest to shippers.
He said improved railway service remains a top priority for all shippers, including the CWB.
“We’ve had some tough service issues,” he said, noting that it took until mid-September to clear last year’s crop out of the elevator system.
Sobkowich said improved rail service is crucial for the future of the grain industry.
“If this bill fails to fully address our service concerns, we’re going to continue to see an erosion of our ability to be competitive in international markets because of our inability to move grain in a timely way.”
