With a federal election only months away, federal opposition parties are continuing to raise concerns about Canada’s grain handling system in light of reports car orders are, again, starting to pile up across the Prairies, iPolitics reports.
Speaking to delegates at the Canadian Federation of Agriculture’s annual meeting in Ottawa this week, both Deputy Liberal Leader Ralph Goodale and NDP Leader Tom Mulcair attacked the Conservatives’ attempts to fix Canada’s grain handling and transportation system after last winter’s devastating logistics crisis.
“The government’s response,” Mulcair said of the grain crisis, “has been nothing short of incompetent.”
Millions of tonnes of the 2013-2014 record grain crop was left stranded in bins and elevators across Western Canada thanks to a combination of poor rail service, major miscommunications along the supply chain and frigid temperatures.
The crisis triggered hours of extra agriculture meetings and an emergency parliamentary debate. The government would eventually issue an emergency cabinet order forcing the railways to move a certain amount of grain per week. The order was extended under the Fair Rail for Grain Farmers Act and extended again in November.
Both Canadian Pacific and Canadian National remain under federal orders to move 345,000 tonnes of grain each per week. Failure to comply risks fines of up to $100,000 per violation payable to the federal government. The current order expires March 28.
The after-effects of the backlog are still being felt today, with the AG Transport Coalition reporting the railroads are currently behind nearly 20,000 hopper car orders. The backlog cost the national economy and Canadian grain farmers $5 billion, Goodale said. Only 44 per cent of the hopper cars ordered for this crop year, he said, have been delivered on time.
And while the situation has been “quieter” this winter because of a smaller harvest, Goodale said issues still exist, in part because of variations in this year’s crop quality.
“It’s not sufficient just to ‘move grain’. The detail matters,” Goodale said. “It must be moved in a timely manner, in response to shipping orders, to get the right product at the right export position just in time to fill the right vessel for the right customer at the right price.”
Asked Wednesday about the accuracy of the data being released by the AG transport coalition on hopper car order delays, Transport Minister Lisa Raitt said she “couldn’t confirm someone else’s data.”
“What I can say is that the data we do receive indicate that the order in council and act that we put in place is working for grain farmers here in Canada, that indeed the grain is moving to the port and indeed it is happening in the framework that we expected it would,” Raitt said.
Meanwhile, Conservative promises to stand tough against the railways, Mulcair said, have fallen flat. “They don’t hold the railroads to account, even as the companies take in record profits.”
Both CN and CP have been fined by Transport Canada for failing to meet a combined three weeks of grain targets. CN has said it will pay its $100,000 fine while CP is currently challenging its $50,000 fine in court.
A full-costing review of the railroads is needed, Mulcair said, “to fix Canada’s grain logistics crisis once and for all.”
Goodale said the system also needs a better definition of service, someone to oversee and coordinate the logistics, equitable service regardless of the selected corridor and liquidated damages for shippers if their product doesn’t move.
“The shippers are captives with no competitive commercial alternatives and no legal recourse when the system fails,” Goodale noted.
He said farmers and shippers must make these shortfalls known to those involved in the ongoing Canadian Transportation Act review, including former Conservative cabinet minister David Emerson, who is heading the review.
The CTA review was fast-tracked last June in light of last winter’s backlog. A final report is expected by the end of 2015.
Both Raitt and Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz have said they will be looking to the review for longer-term improvements to Canada’s grain handling system given the emergency Fair Rail for Grain Farmers Act sunsets in August 2016.
Read the article HERE.
Speaking to delegates at the Canadian Federation of Agriculture’s annual meeting in Ottawa this week, both Deputy Liberal Leader Ralph Goodale and NDP Leader Tom Mulcair attacked the Conservatives’ attempts to fix Canada’s grain handling and transportation system after last winter’s devastating logistics crisis.
“The government’s response,” Mulcair said of the grain crisis, “has been nothing short of incompetent.”
Millions of tonnes of the 2013-2014 record grain crop was left stranded in bins and elevators across Western Canada thanks to a combination of poor rail service, major miscommunications along the supply chain and frigid temperatures.
The crisis triggered hours of extra agriculture meetings and an emergency parliamentary debate. The government would eventually issue an emergency cabinet order forcing the railways to move a certain amount of grain per week. The order was extended under the Fair Rail for Grain Farmers Act and extended again in November.
Both Canadian Pacific and Canadian National remain under federal orders to move 345,000 tonnes of grain each per week. Failure to comply risks fines of up to $100,000 per violation payable to the federal government. The current order expires March 28.
The after-effects of the backlog are still being felt today, with the AG Transport Coalition reporting the railroads are currently behind nearly 20,000 hopper car orders. The backlog cost the national economy and Canadian grain farmers $5 billion, Goodale said. Only 44 per cent of the hopper cars ordered for this crop year, he said, have been delivered on time.
And while the situation has been “quieter” this winter because of a smaller harvest, Goodale said issues still exist, in part because of variations in this year’s crop quality.
“It’s not sufficient just to ‘move grain’. The detail matters,” Goodale said. “It must be moved in a timely manner, in response to shipping orders, to get the right product at the right export position just in time to fill the right vessel for the right customer at the right price.”
Asked Wednesday about the accuracy of the data being released by the AG transport coalition on hopper car order delays, Transport Minister Lisa Raitt said she “couldn’t confirm someone else’s data.”
“What I can say is that the data we do receive indicate that the order in council and act that we put in place is working for grain farmers here in Canada, that indeed the grain is moving to the port and indeed it is happening in the framework that we expected it would,” Raitt said.
Meanwhile, Conservative promises to stand tough against the railways, Mulcair said, have fallen flat. “They don’t hold the railroads to account, even as the companies take in record profits.”
Both CN and CP have been fined by Transport Canada for failing to meet a combined three weeks of grain targets. CN has said it will pay its $100,000 fine while CP is currently challenging its $50,000 fine in court.
A full-costing review of the railroads is needed, Mulcair said, “to fix Canada’s grain logistics crisis once and for all.”
Goodale said the system also needs a better definition of service, someone to oversee and coordinate the logistics, equitable service regardless of the selected corridor and liquidated damages for shippers if their product doesn’t move.
“The shippers are captives with no competitive commercial alternatives and no legal recourse when the system fails,” Goodale noted.
He said farmers and shippers must make these shortfalls known to those involved in the ongoing Canadian Transportation Act review, including former Conservative cabinet minister David Emerson, who is heading the review.
The CTA review was fast-tracked last June in light of last winter’s backlog. A final report is expected by the end of 2015.
Both Raitt and Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz have said they will be looking to the review for longer-term improvements to Canada’s grain handling system given the emergency Fair Rail for Grain Farmers Act sunsets in August 2016.
Read the article HERE.
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