With each passing week, any chance of the Canadian Wheat Board and prairie grain
handling companies ever agreeing on new grain shipping rules seems more unlikely.
Last week the heat was turned up another notch in the months-old dispute.
The board accused the grain handlers of threatening to “strike” by refusing to accept orders
for CWB grain under a new rail car allocation system proposed by the board.
The proposed new car award system, designed to give farmers more control over which
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elevators get rail cars, was to go into effect this week.
But faced with the prospect of a major disruption to grain movement and a potentially nasty
and expensive legal fight, the board decided not to force the issue and cancelled its plans.
CWB chief executive officer Greg Arason said the agency wanted to avert a serious crisis
for farmers and grain buyers.
“We aren’t willing to jeopardize farmers’ livelihoods,” he said. “And we didn’t want
customers to hear that there may be a threat to us being able to fulfill sales and move grain.”
The board’s use of the word strike prompted a heated response from the grain companies,
which in turn accused the board of trying to blackmail them into agreeing to the new rules.
The grain handlers said the board was abusing its powers by trying to impose its will
unilaterally on others in the system. If the board had gone ahead with its plan, it would have
found itself in court charged with violating existing handling agreements, said Ed Guest of
the Western Grain Elevator Association.
“A number of companies had engaged counsel, and lawsuits were about to happen.”
The grain handlers say they were prepared to accept orders for CWB grain this week,
although only under the existing rules.
Arason made no apologies for using the word strike, saying all the major companies sent
letters to the board clearly indicating they wouldn’t accept orders for CWB grain under the
new rules.
“When somebody tells you they’re not going to accept cars, that’s (a strike) as far as I’m
concerned.”
Arason said the board will continue to talk to the grain companies, but he acknowledged that
little has been accomplished in months of discussions to date.
There is no shortage of issues separating the two sides, including the terms of CWB tenders
and the issue of who is the legal shipper of board grain, what kinds of penalties and awards
will be put in place and who gets billed for CWB shipments.
“It’s a complex set of negotiations,” said Arason. “It seems that until we resolve all of the
issues, it appears we’re not going to get agreement on any of them.”
Guest said it boils down to the companies needing the ability to manage their elevator assets
as they see fit.
The elevator companies are willing to continue negotiating, he said, but he also repeated the
WGEA’s call for the federal government to submit the dispute to binding arbitration.
Arason said the board remains committed to bringing in a car allocation system that gives
farmers more power and forces grain companies to compete for farmers’ business.
“Companies should have the right to place cars (at specific elevators) but farmers should
have influence as well in where they choose to sign up their future deliveries.”
The car awards program that was to have gone into effect this week would have seen cars
allocated to companies based on where farmers chose to deliver their CWB contracted
grain. If a farmer moved to another company, his cars would go with him. Grain companies
wanted the allocation to continue to be based on formulas reflecting deliveries over the
previous 12 weeks.
During negotiations, the board eventually said it could live with a system in which both
factors would receive equal weighting, but the companies refused.
