TORONTO — The new chief executive officer of the Canadian Transportation Agency wants grain shippers to make better use of the agency’s mediation services.
Scott Streiner has spoken to many shippers who have concerns with the railways, but few of those concerns end up in front of the CTA.
“It has become evident to me that one of the reasons for that is bringing forth a case for adjudication is a daunting proposition,” he told the record 539 delegates attending the 30th annual Pulse and Special Crops Convention held here July 6-8.
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There are months of proceedings, significant costs and the fears of reprisal from the railways.
But adjudication is only one of the dispute resolution methods used by the CTA.
“It’s important that we ensure that folks are aware there are non-adjudication options available to try to resolve challenges in the relationship between shipping companies and railways,” said Streiner.
Those other options are arbitration, facilitation and mediation.
Streiner puts a lot of faith in mediation. He used to run the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service at Labour Canada
“What I learned there is that when you’ve got a trained, effective mediator, deals that you never thought were possible materialize,” he said in an interview following his presentation.
That’s why shortly after he took the job at the CTA, Streiner implemented a reorganization of the agency that included creating a specialized unit within the dispute resolution branch focused on facilitating and mediating disputes between shippers and railways.
Later this year, he plans to send members from that unit on a western Canadian tour to visit railway facilities, grain elevators and other shipping facilities to develop a deep understanding of the grain transportation system.
“I’m putting the pieces together in the agency,” he said.
“Now, we’ll see if folks come forward and actually avail themselves of the services.”
Streiner also wants grain shippers and other stakeholders to provide their input on the CTA’s regulatory reform.
The agency administers nine sets of regulations on its own.
“Some of these regulations are, to be frank, antiquated,” he said.
They were passed 20 to 25 years ago in an era with different business models, technologies and user expectations than exist today.
All of those regulations are on the table and open for discussion and reform, Streiner said.
“We are prepared to do a wholesale review of all of our regulations.”
The freight rule regulations are of most interest to grain farmers and shippers. Streiner expects robust debate about topics such as interswitching, operational terms and the costing of rail activities for regulated freight rates.
There will be four parts to the consultations. The fourth one, which will be held in late 2016 or early 2017, will focus specifically on rail issues.
“Our intention is to complete consultations and the drafting of new regulations by the end of 2017 and to be finalizing approvals and moving on to implementation by 2018,” said Streiner.
“It’s an ambitious schedule for regulatory change but in my view, a feasible one.”
Other big changes could be coming to the agency stemming from the Canada Transportation Act Review that was tabled in Parliament in February.
Streiner said some recommendations in the review are worthy of consideration.
Those suggestions include giving the CTA the power to initiate inquiries on its own where there is sufficient evidence of a problem, allowing it to make general orders that would apply across the sector if a problem is systemic and giving the agency the ability to collect more data.
