Federal regulations | Farm group concerned minimum volume requirements could be lifted
Federal agriculture minister Gerry Ritz last week backed away from a report claiming he said the government would not renew minimum volume requirements for railways moving grain when they expire Nov. 29.
In an interview Oct. 31, the minister said all options are on the table.
“I’ve never been that definitive,” he said of a Reuters story published earlier in the week. “I said everything is under review.”
The story quoted him as saying only “a complete failure by the railways to move grain,” evidenced by piles of grain at elevators and ships waiting at port, would result in an extension of the minimum.
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That alarmed Agricultural Producers Association of Saskatchewan president Norm Hall, who said prairie grain shippers need certainty their product will move.
He said various organizations, companies and commodity groups all said the same thing during an Oct. 16 meeting with the Canadian Transportation Agency.
“Every group said, to a man, ‘Do not lift this because the railroads haven’t proven they can do this without pressure,’ ”Hall said.
Although this year’s crop is much smaller than last year’s record crop, there is still an estimated 15 million tonnes of carryover from 2013.
“Pretty soon we’re up to 70 million tonnes to move again,” Hall said. “Can we depend on the railroads?”
Grain Growers of Canada executive member Art Enns said members are willing to wait and see what the final decision is.
They are uncomfortable with government intervention, he said, but can’t go through another backlog like last year.
The large crop and cold winter resulted in little grain movement last winter and billions in lost revenue.
The government responded with a cabinet order forcing the railways to move at least one million tonnes per week
If the terms of the order in council are lifted, GGC wants a contingency plan in place immediately, Enns said.
While grain is moving, there are still pockets, including the Peace River area and northeastern Saskatchewan, where producers report slow movement.
Enns said producers are frustrated because the numbers the railways report to the ministers are not publicly available.
“This fall there were all kinds of numbers floating out there,” he said. “Are the railways really meeting their mandate? We don’t really have accurate information on that.”
More open, accurate information is something the Prairie Oat Growers Association, which Enns heads as president, wants from the on-going CTA review.
Oat growers also believe they weren’t necessarily well served by the government’s response to the problem because it addressed only east-west movement and most of their markets are to the south.
Other shippers have been pressuring Ottawa, saying they aren’t getting good service because the railways have been forced to move grain.
Ritz said there is time to assess the situation and make a good decision before Nov. 29.
“Just strictly from the grain side the railways have told us they can do 5,000 cars a week without interfering with other commodities,” he said. “We’ll continue to hold them to that but also we want to see a lot better logistics.”
Last weekend transport minister Lisa Raitt announced she would have surgery this week to remove a solid growth on her ovaries. In a statement issued by her office Nov. 2, she said she intended to return to her duties as soon as possible.
