Few things are as frustrating as being caught in a major traffic jam, with hundreds of vehicles bumper to bumper waiting for the mess to be sorted out. It becomes a test of human nature, as some people seethe, others lean unproductively on their horns, and some try driving across sidewalks to find a way out.
Almost no one, however, reacts to a traffic jam by demanding removal of the city’s traffic lights and dismissal of the traffic cops. That would be about as sensible as letting the air out of your tires to protest your car’s inability to move.
Read Also
Canola council agronomists had big impact on sector
The canola council’s new focus on markets will surely reap benefits, but growers will just need to be a bit more creative when looking for answers to their agronomy questions.
Yet, in grain transportation, a few deregulation-obsessed voices have called for the equivalent of getting rid of the traffic lights and the traffic cop.
Because movement of grain was in a mess last fall and this spring, there have been occasional suggestions that the car-allocation system should be scrapped, companies should be free to negotiate directly with railways for additional cars, or buy their own, and the Grain Transportation Agency should be gutted.
No one can deny there is a need for reform. Agriculture minister Ralph Goodale is right to demand an end to such ludicrous practices as shipping grain to Thunder Bay to qualify for a transportation subsidy and then shipping it back west for U.S. customers.
But reform does not mean tossing out an entire system that has worked well most of the time.
What would happen if there were an unregulated “open market” in railway cars? One way or another, cars would tend to go to the highest bidder – in other words, the cost of moving grain would increase, leaving less cash for farmers.
Holding the railways accountable for meeting performance targets would be much more difficult, if not impossible. The same would apply to penalizing shippers who tie up hopper cars as mobile storage.
The trend to fewer, larger elevators would accelerate as the railways used their new market power to direct cars to a comparatively few locations that were most convenient for them. Smaller elevators that might be more convenient for farmers would face abandonment much earlier than they otherwise would.
In short, a system that attempts to co-ordinate rail transportation to maximize benefits for everyone in the industry would be replaced with a system favoring the railways and large grain companies.
Last week’s industry-government summit in Winnipeg identified several promising approaches to improving the grain transportation system. The industry should press ahead with such reforms and ignore the voices of extremist deregulation.
