I am writing to add clarity to my comments with respect to the rail service review and the need for backstop regulatory remedies to address the matter of railway market power in the shipment of grain (Farm groups seek tougher rules on rail service,WP,Oct. 21.)
The (Western Canadian) Wheat Growers (Association) maintain that such remedies are necessary to help create market conditions that are more balanced and would allow shippers and railways to reach commercial service agreements on their own.
The wheat growers strongly believe in the value of open and competitive markets as the best means of providing farmers with good rates and service in all their business dealings.
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In those instances where such market conditions do not exist, as is now the case in rail transportation, the wheat growers recognize the need for regulatory measures as the best alternative means to creating the conditions that would prevail in a competitive market.
Longer term, we see the creation of an open market in wheat and barley, with the resulting increase in prairie grain processing and improved access to alternate transportation routes, as the best solution to reducing railway market power and the need for government intervention in the marketplace.
In the meantime, the wheat growers support a fast-track review of the revenue cap along the lines of the multi-year costing review conducted under the 2000 Kroeger process, rather than the snapshot costing review approach last taken in 1992.
Blair Rutter
Executive Director
Western Canadian Wheat Growers Association
Winnipeg, Man.
