OTTAWA – Ask Transport Canada why it believes alternative ownership of a 13,000 rail car grain hopper fleet will make the system more efficient and it will answer something like this:
Because.
That was the essence of a letter from transport minister David Anderson to the Commons transport and agriculture committees.
When Anderson appeared before the committees studying the grain car sale issue in the spring, Liberal MP Wayne Easter asked the department to provide “a list of impediments” that would be fixed by selling the cars to private owners.
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Two weeks ago, the minister sent his answer.
Transport Canada has been leading the charge in fulfilling the government’s “economic agenda” of cutting spending, reducing unnecessary regulations and getting rid of assets “that are not essential to good government.”
He said getting rid of the Western Grain Transportation Act last year was part of that agenda.
“It was also recognized at that time that government ownership of the hopper car fleet and involvement in grain car allocations are impediments to system efficiency and the normal commercial operations which characterize the movement of other commodities,” wrote Anderson.
So the government is selling the cars to help move “toward a more efficient, commercial and competitive grain transportation system.”
All of which still left Easter with the question he started with: “How so?”
