Saskatchewan agriculture minister Eric Upshall says he has no intention of being outside looking in when a review of the grain handling and transportation system starts later this year.
And he is angry that prairie agriculture ministers were excluded when federal cabinet ministers met industry players July 25 in Winnipeg to begin planning the review.
“Absolutely we should have been there and I told the federal minister that directly,” Upshall said Aug. 1. “We are major players, we have a major stake. We should not be excluded.”
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Officials from Manitoba and Alberta made the same point last week.
“We think the agreement to hold an early review is positive,” said Lorne Martin, manager of policy analysis for Manitoba Agriculture. “The caveat I would have to place on that is that if you are going to do a review, you have to be sure everyone is involved. I think it’s fair to say the provinces would like to have a place at the table.”
Alberta Agriculture official Glen Werner said Alberta would like to be kept informed of discussions so it can intervene.
“It’s hard to comment on what they decided in Winnipeg because we weren’t there,” said the director of economic services. “Everything we have is second and third hand and that’s a problem for us.”
He said the provinces should not be the most prominent players. “On the other hand, to isolate provinces from the process also is not appropriate.”
The prairie provinces say they have a role because rail line abandonment and other changes to the system can affect use of provincial roads and provincial costs.
Before the Winnipeg meeting, the western provinces issued a call for an inquiry into the grain handling and transportation system, led by independent commissioners “with no commercial affiliation to any stakeholder.”
At the meeting, federal ministers and industry leaders rejected that proposal and decided an industry-led, informal review would be better.
