There’s an old saying “you can’t beat city hall.” A group of west-central Saskatchewan farmers is set to show that you can fight city hall and win, city hall in this case being the Canadian grain-handling system. About 100 farmers across the area from Beechy to Lucky Lake, almost to the Alberta border plan to load 106 producer cars with durum and ship it in unit trains to Vancouver.
The effort is being spearheaded by the West Central Road and Rail Committee, a producer group which was formed to look at the feasibility of shortline railroads in the area.
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Representatives told me the object of the exercise is to send a message to the railways and grain companies and government agencies that producers want a say in how the system unfolds.
One of the spokesmen said “there are three forces against us: the grain companies, the railways and producer apathy.” With the loading of the 106 producer cars, he said, producers will be making a stand, showing that they can make a difference. Farmers with the producer cars are being urged to involve their neighbors. “It will be like an old community barn raising,” they said.
This effort has nothing to do with party politics or with individual grain companies; this has to do with big and little farmers with a commonality of purpose working against decades of diversity.
My sources admitted that forming this grassroots movement is, in effect, going back 70 years and reinventing the wheel.
Producers need to be aware, they said, what it means to lose our elevators as grain companies move more and more to inland terminals. It affects our schools and our businesses and our communities as a whole. When we lose services, those who are left pay increased taxes.
The West Central Road and Rail committee is less than a year old; it was formed in response to CN announcing the abandonment of some rail lines in the West Central Saskatchewan area.
The members of the committee believe that moving grain by rail is much more economical than moving it by road and they are working to prove it.
The members don’t like the idea of losing local elevators and rail lines; but rather than bemoaning the fact and making plans to buy or hire trucks, they are making a stand: saying that rail is cheaper and farmers can move grain cheaper; if there are no local elevators, they will have their own trackside loading facilities and their own shortline railways.
