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Spring
2017
grainswest.com15
BY MELANIE EPP
Photo: iStockPhoto
FULL STEAMAHEAD
GRAINTRANSPORTATIONPOLICYCHANGESAREONTHEWAY
ON NOV. 3, 2016, TRANSPORT
Minister Marc Garneau announced the
federal government’s Transportation 2030
plan, which will include new legislation
that will address several priority areas for
grain transportation. Industry stakehold-
ers have been pushing for these measures
for a long time.
“Grain transportation is of the utmost
importance to our industry,” said Shannon
Sereda, market development and policy
manager at Alberta Barley. “Developing
outside markets has no importance if we
can’t get our grain there, particularly for
Western Canada. We are looking for an ac-
countable and demand-driven rail system.”
Sereda is a member of Team Alberta, a
small group responsible for the lobbying
work that took place leading up to the
federal government’s announcement.
That e ort included everything from
one-on-one time with key ministers to
a letter-writing campaign, to the launch
of a quarterly newsletter to educate MPs
on the importance of a fair and balanced
service. Those e orts have been reward-
ed with the federal government’s recent
announcement that it would introduce
legislation to advance a long-term agenda
for a more transparent, balanced and
e cient rail system this spring.
Wade Sobkowich, executive director for
the Western Grain Elevator Association,
is happy with the announcement, even if
the details of what will be included in the
new legislation remain a bit hazy. “Exactly
what it means, we’re not 100 per cent
sure,” he said. “The most specific promise
of those is the one on reciprocal penalties
and the idea that reciprocal penalties will
be included in service-level agreements in
the legislation.”
Je Nielsen, president of the Grain
Growers of Canada, said the promise of
reciprocal penalties is a step in the right
direction. “Prior to this new legislation it
was ‘too bad,’” he said. “We hope with the
reciprocal penalties that we’ll see better
rail performance.”
Tom Steve, general manager of the
Alberta Wheat Commission, agreed
that reciprocal penalties are key to any
new legislation. “Reciprocal penalties in
service-level agreements will enable grain
shippers to hold railways accountable to
contract terms that you would expect
from a normal competitive commercial
agreement,” he said.
The announcement also promised a bet-
ter definition of “adequate and suitable”
service in the Canada Transportation Act,
and to improve timelines for decisions.
“If Canada is to grow its economy, then
we need to have a definition of adequate
and suitable accommodation that is rooted
in shipper demand,” said Sobkowich.
“Because we can’t have a definition of
adequate and suitable that’s based on the
amount of rail cars and locomotives and
crews the railways choose to put out there.
We can’t have a supply-based definition of
adequate and suitable.”
The government also announced that
it would address the future of extended
interswitching limits and the maximum
revenue entitlement (MRE). While Niels-
en agreed that the MRE needs to be ad-
dressed, he said the bigger problem is that
hopper car fleets are at the end of their life
expectancy and need to be replaced. The
new cars, he said, are lighter, shorter and
carry more grain. “Overall, we’re just very
happy that we’ve seen the government
move this far,” he added.
“At the end of the day,” said a more
cautious Sobkowich, “we just want the
service and we want reasonable rates.”
For now, Sereda and the rest of Team
Alberta will continue their work to advance
policy on behalf of Alberta’s crop sector.
“We’re at the point where we’re just
waiting to see what’s going to happen,”
she said. “While the announcement is
exciting, there are still a lot of details that
need to be ironed out.”
The federal government has promised that new grain transportation legislation will include reciprocal penalties in
an effort to improve rail performance.