Ted Allen has a plan he says could pave the way to better rural roads in Western Canada.
The president of United Grain Growers Ltd. says the federal government should turn over the proceeds from selling its fleet of 13,000 hopper cars to municipal governments for road construction and repair.
Allen made the proposal in a letter to justice Willard Estey, who is leading a review of the grain handling and transportation system.
“Applying the sale proceeds to roads will ensure the investment continues to benefit rural Western Canada,” he said. “In effect, the federal government will be transferring its investment in rail cars to an investment in roads.”
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Ottawa announced three years ago it would sell the cars, but plans were derailed by arguments over who should buy them and at what price.
Now, the plans have been put on hold pending the outcome of the Estey review.
Point to ponder
Canadian Wheat Board minister Ralph Goodale told reporters in Saskatoon last week the UGG plan is best left for Estey to consider.
Allen said the cars have an estimated value of $250 to $350 million, which could help financially squeezed local governments deal with decaying roads.
He said the federal government collects more than $4 billion a year in fuel taxes, but last year spent only $270 million on road infrastructure.
Allen’s proposal generated limited enthusiasm from two farm leaders who have been involved in both the hopper car and road issues.
Sinclair Harrison, president of the Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities and chair of the Farmer Rail Car Coalition, said he would endorse the plan only if it included support for the coalition’s efforts to buy the cars on behalf of prairie farmers.
The bottom line, he said, is that farmers must own and control the fleet to ensure the cars are used to haul prairie grain.
National Farmers Union president Nettie Wiebe said under Allen’s proposal, the railways can extract whatever they might pay for the rail cars from grain farmers through higher freight rates, and farmers would end up paying for the cars anyway.
And she said it’s ironic that the president of a grain company would express concern about crumbling roads, when elevator companies’ centralization plans and construction of high throughput elevators are a major cause of the problem.
