REGINA – Gregor Beck has been farming near Rouleau, Saskatchewan since 1981. Since November, he’s been sitting on about 1,000 tonnes of grain waiting to be transported to market.
“In terms of the lack of freight, we’ve never seen something like that before,” said Breck.
“I’m waiting for a bin to be freed up. The material has been in the bins (at Briercrest) since December and hasn’t been touched. It should have gone out a long time ago.”
Blaming the frigid conditions, railway companies can’t keep up with this year’s bumper crop but some producers aren’t buying the cold weather excuse.
“When the weather did get cold, they had to shorten the trains by 35 per cent and they didn’t have enough horsepower or manpower to increase number of short trains they ran,” said Norm Hall, president of Agricultural Producers Association of Saskatchewan.
“They should be planning for that.”
Monday’s emergency legislation is being hailed as a step in the right direction despite the province’s lack of jurisdiction.
“Our provincial government can go to them and say, ‘will you or would you please,’ but they cannot say ‘you shall or you will,’” said Hall.
According to Quorum Corporation, which was appointed by the federal government to monitor the situation, the amount of grain making it to western ports as of the end of February is down by three per cent compared to last year.
WATCH: Conservatives questioned over lack of action on grain backlog Wednesday in House of Commons (Mar 5)
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