OTTAWA – If Saskatchewan Wheat Pool is serious about its delegates’ December decision to buy CN Rail assets, its time may be coming.
Last week, momentum continued to build for government sale of the railway.
A task force of Liberal MPs released a report Jan. 19 calling on the government to “commercialize” the CN by selling it to private investors.
Transport minister Doug Young has indicated he is interested. He has ordered that the potential for a share offer be studied.
Robert Nault, Liberal MP from northwest Ontario and chair of the task force, said a Sask Pool investment would be logical and beneficial.
Read Also
Canada’s plant hardiness zones receive update
The latest update to Canada’s plant hardiness zones and plant hardiness maps was released this summer.
“I would hope that CN employees would get involved,” he said in a Jan. 20 interview from Kenora, Ont.
“The idea of a major user like Saskatchewan Pool buying in also makes a lot of sense.”
He said there should be a cap on the number of shares any one person or company can own.
“But if it was, say, 10 percent, that would give them a major say in how the company operates.”
Free CN
The task force report, written after hearings last year across the country, said it is time to free CN from the need to be an “instrument of public policy”.
Ottawa should separate its non-rail assets, sell off the core rail system and make it easier to establish short-line railways on lines the national railways no longer want to operate, according to the report.
The National Transportation Agency should be given more power and staff to hear and analyze applications for branch line abandonment from the major railways, said Nault.
It should look for alternative operators of the line before it is abandoned, including local business interests willing to invest.
“Short lines should be encouraged because they can operate with less overhead and often make a losing line a money maker,” said the MP.
If the railway wants to abandon a line but there is no local interest in operating a short line, it would be up to the NTA to decide if there is a future potential for increased traffic on the line or a national or regional need to maintain it.
If there still is a “public policy” need for the line, it would be up to the government to subsidize a railway to operate the line.
One example of such a “transparent subsidy” could be the rail route to Churchill, if the government decided it could not be abandoned.
Nault said the result of the recommendations, if implemented, would be a more efficient CN rail company, lower subsidies for Ottawa to pay, more short-line railways, a stronger National Transportation Agency and possibly greater branch line abandonment.
“Quite clearly, there will be a real need for rationalization, particularly in Sask-atchewan,” said the Kenora-Rainy River MP.
But abandonment hearings would be held while the line is still operating, giving those who depend on it or want it retained the right to offer alternatives.
“We think this would be an improvement.”
