A federally appointed panel in charge of reviewing the Canadian Transportation Act is expected to complete its preliminary round of consultations within the next few weeks.
Murad Al Katib, one of six people appointed to the panel, said preliminary consultations with a variety of agricultural stakeholders has already taken place.
Al Katib, president of Alliance Grain Traders, said he has met over the past two or three months with grain growers, commodity groups, elevator companies, railways companies and producer car program administrators across the Prairies.
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“It’s been a very exhaustive start to the review process on the grain side,” said Al Katib, who is leading CTA consultations with agricultural stakeholders.
“The consistent message that we’re getting is that there were a lot of problems last year.”
The CTA review is billed as an arm’s length process aimed at assessing federal rail and transportation regulations to ensure they are meeting industry needs and supporting economic growth.
The review process is headed by David Emerson, a former bank executive and parliamentarian whose four-year career as an MP and federal cabinet minister included stints as minister of industry, minister of international trade and minister of foreign affairs from 2004-08.
The review will pay specific attention to transportation issues affecting the Canadian agriculture industry.
Panel members have been asked to provide preliminary feedback to transport minister Lisa Raitt’s office before the end of the year, based on discussions with agricultural stakeholders.
“Agriculture is certainly a priority and it was outlined by minister Raitt in the (review’s) terms of reference,” said Al Katib,
“We have a target to provide preliminary feedback to the minister before the end of the calendar year and we’ve also made it clear to agricultural shippers and producer groups that they’re also going to have a second round of consultations that will allow them in the spring to give us their views after the winter (shipping season).”
Nathan Gordon, a member of the CTA review secretariat, said individuals and organizations not included in face-to-face consultations are welcome to make submissions before Dec. 30.
After a second round of consultations with agricultural shippers next spring, a final report containing recommendations for regulatory and legislative improvements will be submitted to the federal government by Dec. 24, 2015.
Agricultural shippers in Western Canada are hoping that the review process will produce a regulatory environment that results in more predictable rail service and demands greater accountability from Canada’s major railway companies.
The Agricultural Producers Association of Saskatchewan will make a joint submission to the CTA review, along with Saskatchewan commodity groups, said APAS president Norm Hall.
The joint submission will include organizations that represent wheat, barley and pulse growers and possibly others, he said.
It will emphasize the unique transportation challenges that affect agricultural shippers in Saskatchewan and will focus on concerns that are unique to producers as opposed to elevator companies and other industry groups.
“Saskatchewan has a number of unique points that need to be ad-dressed,” said Hall.
“For example, we have the most short lines of any province, so therefore we are loading the most producer cars. We also have the largest number of producer car loading sites outside of short lines.
“What we are looking at is specifically an ag voice as opposed to other industry groups such as … grain handlers and so on. This will be a producer specific voice for Saskatchewan.”
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brian.cross@producer.com
