OTTAWA – A group of Ontario farmers is lobbying the federal government to reject any sale of its grain hopper cars that would limit use of the cars to Western Canada.
Ontario wheat, corn and soybean producers have been trying to convince Ottawa that 500 of the 13,000 cars should be available to move Ontario commodities.
“We think the message of Eastern Canada on this issue has been heard but perhaps has not been given much weight (by the federal government),” said Brian Doidge, who speaks for the Ontario coalition lobbying on the issue.
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Transportation focus
Doidge, an employee of the provincial agriculture department who teaches at an agricultural college, has been hired by the Ontario Corn Growers Association to work on issues such as transportation.
He said Ontario has two arguments on the rail cars.
First, tax dollars from Ontario helped buy the cars, so Ontario farmers should receive some benefit.
“When they were purchased, 42 percent of the money came from us.”
Second, Ontario farmers are feeling vulnerable as their transportation system is changed.
Operation of the St. Lawrence Seaway is being turned over to private interests and the impact on movement of farm produce by water is unclear.
Meanwhile, the Ontario government is considering changes to trucking regulations that would reduce the size of trucks and increase trucking freight costs to farmers.
Doidge said farmers are hoping a system of short-line railways develops in the province now that the Ontario government has changed labor laws to make it easier.
“But unless the short lines have access to rolling stock, rail lines are useless,” he said. “That is our problem. We need to know we have access to some of those cars.”
He said the large national railways have little interest in serving rural Ontario.
Ontario farmers have carried their case to some prairie farm groups and did not hear opposition, he said.
The federal government is trying to sell its fleet of 13,000 rail hopper cars and announced it would accept offers from all interested parties.
