Grain Workers Union president says rather than increase capacity, improvements need to focus on logistics
MOOSE JAW, Sask. — Grain workers at the port of Vancouver are watching planned developments there and questioning the need for more capacity.
Gerry Gault, president of the Grain Workers Union, said the proposed new G3 facility, plus expansions and upgrades at existing terminals, will put total capacity at 35 million tonnes within a couple of years.
“I don’t know what part of Canada they’re going to find 36 million or 35 million tonnes to send to the West Coast,” he told the Farming For Profit conference in June.
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He said the six terminals at Prince Rupert and Vancouver will handle about 21 million tonnes this year, but their capacity is 25 million. Three facilities are under renovation, which will add another five to six million tonnes when complete. That puts total capacity, before the G3 terminal, at 26 to 28 million tonnes, he added.
Gault said the union worries about full-time jobs if excess capacity is available, but it also question the logistics.
The proposed eight million tonne terminal would be on the north shore along with Richardson and Cargill terminals. They sit on the Canadian National Railway line, where there is also an oil refinery that is planning to triple production.
“Instead of 80 vessels a year, they want to go to over 340 vessels a year,” he said.
Grain cars have to cross a bridge to get to the terminals, which must be raised to allow the oil ships through.
“How they’re going to get cars to the north shore with that bridge raised, none of us know,” he said.
As well, Richardson is upgrading its facility to 4.9 million tonnes from 3.4 million tonnes.
Cargill has the capacity for five million tonnes but will handle less than three million this year, Gault said. At the same time, the company has spent $160 million at its terminal improving automation.
“If that facility ever gets properly managed again and they can do their 5.5 million tonnes and Richardson’s does their 1.5 million more, that’s 3.5 million more tonnes that’s got to go across that bridge before we even take a look at another eight million tonne facility that this group is proposing,” Gault said.
The union doesn’t think the bridge or the rail lines can handle that volume. He said the railways already aren’t servicing the terminals well and used the smallest, oldest terminal as an example.
The Alliance Grain terminal runs three shifts Monday to Friday on a Canadian Pacific Railway line.
“The railway cannot service them for 21 percent of those shifts.”
Gault believes that is a direct result of CP cutting 400 locomotives and 400 crews.
There are also issues on the water.
He said the former Canadian Wheat Board took an average of 3.5 moves to fill a vessel when it handled logistics.
The ship would come to port, go to a terminal and load, move to the next terminal with similar product and load, repeat as needed, and then leave. Now, it takes seven moves per vessel to load.
The ships go to a particular terminal, load what’s available and then return to anchor to wait for the same product at the same terminal, and so on until it is fully loaded.
“The average stay of a vessel used to be between seven to 10 days,” Gault said.
“Now the average is 21 to 28 days. Last year we did have a vessel that stayed in the port of Vancouver for 65 days to load 55,000 tonnes. That just doesn’t seem to make sense to anybody.”
He said the union neither opposed nor supported the wheat board, but clearly something has to change. Grain companies could voluntarily work together or be legislated to improve logistics.
“I don’t care how you do it,” Gault said.
“What is needed is for somebody to run a single desk for logistics. At the end of the year, after all the vessels are done, somebody write a cheque and pay everybody else off.”
