Hopes are high, but expectations modest, as grain shippers and farm groups await the release of Ottawa’s much-delayed transportation policy blueprint.
Grain industry groups are hoping that the new policy will include steps to boost rail competition and improve rates and services.
Their wish list covers areas such as running rights, final-offer arbitration, level of service rules, the rail revenue cap and public interest requirements.
“We’re pushing hard on this,” said Canadian Wheat Board director Ian McCreary, chair of the board’s transportation committee.
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Rob Lobdell, president of West Central Road and Rail, said the blueprint could help determine the future shape of the grain handling and transportation system.
“Certainly from the shippers’ and producers’ perspective, you want to make sure competitive measures and shipper protections are in place and strengthened,” he said.
But some observers warn that hopes shouldn’t get too high.
Barry Prentice, chair of the University of Manitoba’s Transport Institute, said the blueprint could well reinforce the status quo.
“My speculation is there won’t be much change,” he said. “My gut feeling is we’re not going to see anything like open access coming our way.”
Open access, or running rights, refers to a policy of allowing other carriers to run on a competing railway’s tracks.
Attempts in the last year by Omnitrax and Ferroequus Railway to gain running rights on prairie grain lines have been rejected by the Canadian Transportation Agency, leading to widespread calls for more flexible rules.
“Their experience was almost complete proof that the Canadian Transportation Act is inadequate,” said McCreary.
A spokesperson for federal transport minister David Collenette said last week the minister will release the blueprint in the near future but declined to be more specific.
It was originally to be released last fall, but has been repeatedly delayed, leading to speculation in the grain industry that it has been the subject of sharp debate in cabinet.
One grain transportation official, who asked not to be identified, said the biggest obstacle to bringing in new competitive measures is the minister himself.
“Collenette is certainly seen as railway-friendly and naturally he doesn’t want more competition,” he said.
McCreary said one key thing that grain and other bulk shippers are hoping for is that the government will reverse the burden of proof in running rights applications.
Under the current rules, applicants seeking running rights have to prove that it would be in the public interest. Instead, say the shippers, the onus should be on the host railway to prove that an application would not be in the public interest.
Shippers also say a company with running rights should be allowed to solicit freight traffic along a host railway’s line.
National Farmers Union executive secretary Darrin Qualman said his organization doesn’t really care whether the government does anything around the issue of running rights.
“We’re almost certainly not going to get it, and even if we did, it would only apply in a few places and the vast majority of farmers would still be captive to one railway,” he said.
The way for the government to really help grain shippers and farmers is to re-regulate railway freight rates on grain, he said.
