Prairie grain will move to port this winter without a repeat of last year’s traffic snarls, overflowing farmer bins and multi-million dollar demurrage bills, leaders of the grain handling and transportation sector promised last week.
Farmers and politicians who heard the promises were prepared to believe them.
“There is a high level of confidence that things will work well,” Canadian Wheat Board minister Ralph Goodale said in a July 28 interview.
“We will move all the 1997-98 crop and make a significant dent in the carryover from last year.”
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Saskatchewan Wheat Pool president Leroy Larsen concurred.
“I thought it was very positive and good news,” he said. “I got the feeling from every player there that they did not want to be the ones who screwed up this year. They want to be sure the system operates to capacity.”
The promises were made as 20 industry representatives met for more than five hours last Friday evening with three federal cabinet ministers at a Winnipeg hotel to sort out a strategy for 1997-98 grain movement.
Who gets cars
A car allocation plan was outlined that was both “aggressive and realistic,” said a senior bureaucrat who attended the meeting.
When they emerged, excuses for poor performance had been replaced by promises of improvements.
The railways detailed plans to increase locomotive power, the size of the grain fleet and the workforce needed to keep grain moving.
“We have made our commitments and everyone else in the system has to perform as well,” said CN Rail spokesperson Mark Hallman.
“Coming out of the meeting, there was a confidence level that the players all are determined to do their best.”
Ready when needed
Grain companies promised to have the grain ready when it is needed.
“Everyone has focused on throughput and timely volumes at the right place, at the right time, in the right order,” said Goodale.
And both CN president Paul Tellier and Canadian Wheat Board chief commissioner Lorne Hehn promised they will co-operate to move this year’s crop, even though they are locked in a bitter dispute before the Canadian Transportation Agency over wheat board allegations that the railways did not meet their performance obligations last year.
By mid-September, the Car Allocation Policy Group promised to present the government with a “contingency plan” of what will be done should problems threaten to throw this year’s grain movement off schedule.
An important feature of the system will be “early warning monitoring” to alert the industry to potential snags or breakdowns.
“This is pre-emptive stuff that was not done last year,” said agriculture minister Lyle Vanclief.
Goodale, Vanclief and transport minister David Collenette called the Winnipeg meeting to listen to industry plans, to make it clear Ottawa does not want to see a repeat of last year’s mess, and to inject “a good dose of determined moral leadership,” said the wheat board minister.
It all impressed Manitoba farmer Kevin Archibald, who attended as vice-president of the Western Canadian Grain Growers Association.
“There was a real sense of urgency, a real willingness of the three ministers to make it work,” he said from his farm. “I am very confident that this winter will not be like last winter.”
