Executives from the national railways have promised MPs that they will be ready to move this year’s prairie grain crop, no matter how big it is.
They were grilled by Saskatchewan Conservative MP David Anderson, who noted there were many farmer complaints about the railway record on moving last year’s smaller crop. This year’s crop could be bigger, he said.
“What are you doing to ensure that this year’s crop is going to be able to be moved…?”
Paul Miller, Canadian National Railway vice-president, acknowledged during a House of Commons agriculture committee meeting June 22 that CN has had “some struggles in the first quarter of the year” that raised many farmer complaints, but that was then.
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“That’s behind us now, I believe, since about mid-March or so of this year,” he said.
There have been investments in the system and the hiring of 200 train crews in Western Canada.
“We are looking at doing a much better job and there’s lots of room for improvement here in terms of scheduled operations,” said Miller.
Judy Harrower, assistant vice-president with Canadian Pacific Railway, said her company is working under capacity and is looking forward to a bigger crop. CPR has won better reviews from farmers this year than has CN.
“Frankly, we have not used the capacity that we have built and we’re looking forward to the demand that exists out there,” she said.
“We have some crews laid off right now because we are lighter on demand than we would have hoped. From our perspective, we are geared up and ready to go.”
Anderson, a grain farmer from southwestern Saskatchewan, began the exchange by noting the farmers in his riding were unhappy with the lack of service they were receiving from CN.
“All last winter I heard regularly from my constituents in the northern half of my riding that they were getting virtually no service and no co-operation from your railway when they were asking for car allocation,” he said.
“They were very frustrated.”
The railways put themselves on the Parliament Hill record promising to do better this year.
