Order will get grain back on track, Raitt
Transport Minister Lisa Raitt defended her government’s move last Friday to order Canada’s two major railways to increase their shipments to one million tonnes per week in order to break the logjam of grain that has been clogging bins and elevators in Western Canada for the past five months.
“We believe these measures are concrete and that they are immediate and will help to address the Canadian grain transportation crisis that we’re facing,” Raitt told about 1,500 delegates at the Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities (SARM) convention on Wednesday.
However, even if the railways are able to double their shipments to 11,000 railcars per week, Raitt conceded it could take six months or longer to clear the backlog of grain that has cost producers an estimated $5 billion in lost income.
Asked whether six months was an acceptable length of time for farmers to wait for the backlog to be cleared, Raitt responded: “From a farmer’s point view, no. I accept that. But the reality is that’s what the system can do at the moment,’’ Raitt told reporters following her address to SARM delegates.
Raitt also admitted that Bill C-52, the bill to amend the Canadian Transportation Act, or the Fair Rail Freight Service Act, which was introduced in late 2012 and passed in June 2013, was not working as planned. “I’ve heard from people in the room (at the SARM convention) that nobody has signed these shipping (service level) agreements,’’ Raitt said. “We have received great advice from the various stakeholders out here in the Prairies ... as to what’s needed for these SLAs,” she said, adding the new legislation should be coming out “in a couple of weeks.’’ She also said the $100,000 a day fines the railways must pay if they fail to meet the one million tonne per week target by early next month was the maximum allowed under the Canadian Transportation Act. “From what I’ve been reading, certainly it’s caught the attention of shareholders of the two companies (CN and CP Rail),’’ said Raitt.
Asked by one SARM delegate if the fines could be paid to farmers, Raitt was non-committal. “We’re looking at all options.’’
But she later told reporters the point of the order-incouncil was not to generate fines, but to get the grain moving.