The 2001-02 crop year may seem like a dim, distant memory to most grain farmers and shippers.
But the federal grain monitor’s report for the crop year that ended nine months ago has yet to be released, much to the frustration of many grain industry and farm officials.
Mark Hemmes, president of Quorum Corp., the Edmonton consulting firm hired by Ottawa as the grain monitor, said he’s as frustrated as anyone by the length of time it has taken to complete the report and make it public.
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“It’s certainly not as timely as we’d like it to be,” he said last week.
A spokesperson for federal transport minister David Collenette said this week the report will be released soon, but wouldn’t specify a date.
“The report is being finalized as we speak and we’re hopeful it should be available shortly,” he said.
Hemmes cited several reasons for the late release, including some delays in getting information from grain companies and railways, and time for translation and printing.
But he also said he would be reluctant to see legislated deadlines imposed on the process, which is now done on a co-operative basis.
“There’s a part of me that says that would make our job phenomenally easier,” he said. “But if someone is regulated to do something they were previously doing willingly, it can create a negative attitude.”
The federal government created the monitoring process as part of a package of grain transportation reforms introduced in 2000.
For many farmers and farm groups, the most important part of the monitoring process is the calculation of the financial effect of transportation changes on farmers.
Ian McCreary, a Canadian Wheat Board director and chair of the board’s transportation committee, said while it would be nice if the report could be released more quickly, he’s more concerned about what will – or won’t – be in it.
He said the board has always maintained that the only way for the monitor to gather accurate information on the financial impact of changes on farmers is to ask them through a survey.
“Unless they ask farmers for that link back, it’s really hard for them to do their job, and they never got clearance from Ottawa to do that.”
McCreary also is concerned that the government has made no commitment to take action based on the monitor’s findings. He said the monitoring process was introduced as a way to give some assurance to farmers that their concerns would be looked after even though the system was being deregulated. But he fears that’s not the way things have turned out.
“The lesson on this one is that monitoring as it’s being done is not a very effective alternative (to regulatory protection).”
