Changing industry | Lack of interest and grain marketing changes force group to dissolve
An organization that has represented the interests of producer car shippers in Western Canada since 2007 has reached the end of the line.
Producer Car Shippers of Canada Inc. (PCSC), held its final annual meeting last December, said former president Tim Coulter.
The organization is now in the process of legally dissolving, leaving producer car shippers without a formal organization.
“We’re winding down,” said Coulter, a farmer and producer car shipper from Briercrest, Sask.
“We’ve asked our lawyers to dissolve the organization.”
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Coulter said the decision was prompted by a variety of factors, including changes to the grain marketing environment.
Under single desk grain marketing, CWB collected a levy of $20 on each producer car that was loaded with board grain and forwarded it to the PCSC, which used it to fund day-to-day operations.
The process is now more difficult, and some grain companies are reluctant to collect the fees on the organization’s behalf.
“We did have a couple of organizations that were willing to forward us some of the funding that was being collected, but the majority of them … didn’t want to be bothered with the administration of a $20 fee,” he said.
“It just became too difficult to try and figure out how we were going to handle (the collection of association fees), plus there was a lack of interest, the same as with any organization. It’s hard to get people involved.”
Coulter said the decision to fold will not affect farmers’ ability to order and use producer cars, but it will mean that they do not have an organization to represent their interests and express shippers’ views in a unified and co-ordinated manner.
Ironically, the dissolution of PCSC comes as interest in shipping grain in producer cars is increasing.
“It’s kind of strange because normally we might get a couple or three calls every once in a while about producer cars, but after we decided that it was time to wrap up the organization, then the phone started ringing off the hook because now people can’t get cars at their local elevators,” he said.
The economics of shipping grain in producer cars is still attractive to many growers, he added.
