Ottawa must unplug grain bottleneck
One might expect Manitoba grain farmers to approach spring seeding with optimism and healthy bank accounts, considering last season’s harvests set new records for the fifth year in a row. So why the grim faces?
The problem is the railroads, yet again the weak link in the supply chain. Grain movement slowed to a crawl over the winter because the railways couldn’t keep up with the grain companies — requests for cars.
It’s a disheartening replay of the transportation bottleneck that held up the crop of 2013, when a number of factors, including heavy snowfalls, reduced rail transportation of grain to a trickle.
Back then, the federal government imposed minimum-movement quotas on the rail duopoly, Canadian National Railway and Canadian Pacific Railway. The Conservative government proposed legislation to make the railways move a combined one million tonnes of grain per week during spring, or face fines of $100,000 a day.
Unfortunately for the grain growers, that proposed solution is still just a proposal. The bill was stalled in the Senate until last week, when an amended version was sent back to the House of Commons, which doesn’t sit again until April 16.
For their part, CN and CP say their inability to promptly move this season’s grain shipments was caused by a larger-than-expected crop, and by a harsh winter that iced tracks and froze switches.
But the grain growers say the railways are less than fully forthcoming about their sluggish performance. The Western Grain Elevators Association points to: 1) railway cost-cutting of crews and locomotives; 2) the railways prioritizing higher-value freight, such as international intermodal containers that arrive on ships; and 3) a newly adopted railway strategy called “precision railroading” that moves trains on schedule instead of holding them until their cars are full, a strategy that aims to improve efficiency but actually decreases capacity.
The successful delivery of grain to its markets impacts more than the farmers who brought the product from seed to silo. It should concern even Manitobans whose only direct connection to grain is their morning bowl of cereal, because when farmers have a good year financially, the bounty trickles down through the Manitoba economy as farmers reinvest by buying vehicles and an array of goods and services. There have been promising words in recent weeks. Transport Minister Marc Garneau and Agriculture Minister Lawrence MacAulay wrote to both major railways in March, asking them to improve their performance.
The next day, CN interim president Jean-Jacques Ruest said the company will try harder to clear grain backlogs: “The entire CN team has a sense of urgency and is fully focused on getting it right for farmers and our grain customers, regaining the confidence of Canadian businesses and protecting Canada’s reputation as a stable trade partner in world markets.” The words are appreciated as a sign of good intentions, but to ensure the railways’ newfound “sense of urgency” is permanently maintained, the House of Commons should give priority to passing the legislation that would improve public reporting by railways and allow for financial penalties if they fail to deliver railcars on time.
Words without action are as hollow as the holds of ships waiting in harbour to be filled with too-longdelayed Prairie grain.
(This editorial was published April 4 in the Winnipeg Free Press and distributed by The Canadian Press.)
“The successful delivery of grain to its markets impacts more than the farmers who brought the product from seed to silo.”