CAMROSE, Alta. – While two farm commodity groups have left a coalition that expects to bid on the federal government’s grain hopper rail car fleet, others are joining the group.
The Alberta Soft Wheat Producers Commission voted to join the group of prairie commodity organizations looking at the feasibility of producers buying the 13,000 hopper cars.
“We have strong support for grain producers owning the grain cars,” said president Art Eckert, of Duchess, Alta. “We felt we should join the Saskatchewan consortium.”
Recently, the Western Canadian Wheat Growers and the Western Producer Car Group pulled out of the coalition.
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But Eckert said after listening to all the concerns and debate, his organization felt it should support producers having some ownership in the transportation system.
“Our group wasn’t pleased with the thought of having Burlington Northern going north and taking control of our system,” he said, referring to rumors the American rail line was looking at hauling grain in Canada and forcing farmers to bid on rail cars.
Sinclair Harrison, chair of the rail car coalition, said the group will begin soliciting official letters of support from other prairie organizations this week.
While he feels the coalition has support from 90 percent of prairie farmers, it would like official letters of support from different farm organizations, Harrison said in an interview from Ottawa.
“We’ve had a number of organizations express support for what we’re doing. We now have to actively go out and get a letter of support,” said the president of the Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities.
The letters will show government and producers how strong the coalition is, but it will also give the same organizations more information on the progress on the purchase of the cars.
Meanwhile the Alberta Winter Wheat Producers Commission said it supports the Prairie Farm Commodity Coalition, a different band of farm groups involved in the hopper car debate but not supporting the proposed producer purchase.
“The federal grain car fleet should be sold on a market based, least cost system,” said Brian Otto, winter wheat chair, in a news release.
The sale of the federal fleet should be governed only by commercial considerations to avoid any political and/or government entity interference, the release said.
