We’re so used to the arguments among energy producers and environmentalists over the modern-era phenomena of moving crude oil and natural gas from where it is produced to where it can be used. We forget that long before this debate, the same kind of dispute involved prairie grain farmers and the railways. In both cases, the national government is asked to act as referee.
It’s a referee’s job to ensure the game is played according to the rules, and to hand out penalties for those who don’t play by the rules. In the case of moving grain, the referee is trying to craft a new set of rules: C-49, the Transportation Modernization Act. That bill is currently making its way through Parliament.
“I’ve got crops sitting in silos and and customers waiting to take delivery,” grain farmer Warren Sekulic, told me.
“I was in Ottawa last week, testifying before the Senate committee on transportation and communications. I told them we need this bill passed so that the railways can be held accountable for not providing the freight cars that are needed to move the crop.”
“It’s been a cold winter,” says David Przednowek, director of grain marketing for CN Rail. “When it gets cold like this, we have to reduce the size of our trains for safety reasons. It means we need double the usual numbers of trains to move the same amount of product. And, we have to do it safely, especially when we have a lot of traffic on our main lines.”
Last week’s market report from National Bank Financial noted that for the week ending February 3, CN provided 54 per cent of the hopper cars ordered. CP Rail’s numbers were better than that, although still not fully meeting the industry’s demands. CN is boosting capital spending to $3.2 billion to increase capacity and adding more crews and locomotives to its operations.
Without C-49, however, the government lacks an updated rule book with which to force compliance. That’s the farmers’ point of view. They want the act passed yesterday. And they want the federal government to be in a position to push the railways to do their job — and to punish the railways if they do not.
The crops are available and so are the customers. All that’s needed, it seems, is the enforcement of a set of rules to ensure crops and customers are brought together, before the crops spoil, of course.
It’s tough being a referee, especially when you know your work is going to be closely scrutinized every day, complete with the equivalent of video replay. Or, if you prefer, the national news.
https://omny.fm/shows/alberta-morning-news/grain-farmers-lament
https://omny.fm/shows/alberta-morning-news/cn-responds