It’s# not fair to order CP Rail to improve its performance without issuing similar orders to other grain industry players, says a lawyer for the railway.
One of the remedies being asked for by the Canadian Wheat Board in its service complaint against CP Rail is an order from the Canadian Transportation Agency requiring the railway to deliver enough grain cars to meet port unload targets set by the Car Allocation Policy Group.
But during closing arguments in the case last week, CP lawyer Marc Shannon said the railway can’t control whether unload targets are met.
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If CP is ordered to provide enough cars to meet the CAPG targets, then the wheat board should be ordered to provide enough grain to fill that number of cars and the terminal operators should be ordered to unload them.
“The board’s requests are not commercially fair and reasonable,” Shannon said.
The CAPG process is an informal, consensual process that is subject to change at any time, and ordering the railway to adhere to CAPG guidelines would make a complicated, inflexible grain transportation system even more complicated and inflexible, he said.
Shannon also took issue with other orders being sought by the wheat board.
For example, the board wants the agency to order the railway to honor its commercial arrangements and commitments on movement to Eastern Canada and the United States. Shannon said the commitments for movement during the complaint period in 1996-97 are no longer in effect and CP can’t be ordered to fulfill them.
The board also asks the agency to issue an order that would prohibit the railway from discriminating against grain. Shannon said the railway is already required to do so by law and the order being sought by the board is “vague and unclear.”
He also said that in a commercial environment, different commodities will always receive different treatment.
