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SERVING MANITOBA FARMERS SINCE 1925 | Vol. 74, No. 47 | $1.75
November 24, 2016
ALUS Canada to launch New Acre Project
manitobacooperator.ca
Prairie farm leaders meet CN Rail in Vancouver
Donor dollars will be matched with individual projects they choose
It was an attempt to build bridges and ultimately improve grain shipping, but farmers remain unclear about the impact the MRE is having on car replacements
BY LORRAINE STEVENSON Co-operator staff
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LUS Canada is setting up a channel to let individuals and organizations financially contribute to projects undertaken by farmers and ranchers. The New Acre Project was announced earlier this month as ALUS Canada acknowledged a $5-million investment from the W. Garfield Weston Foundation to help the organization expand its reach across the country. The New Acre Project will be the first of its kind in North America and offers a new way for the private sector and members of the public to invest in alternative land use services, said Bryan Gilvesy, CEO of ALUS and an Ontario cattle producer. “If you want to have cleaner air, cleaner water and more biodiversity, you can make that happen by sponsoring New Acres,” he said. A typical New Acre will deliver a number of ecosystem services, such as wildlife and pollinator habitat, carbon sequestration, flood control and drought mitigation, which
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CN Rail vice-president of bulk commodities, Doug MacDonald, met with a group of farmers representing the Alberta Federation of Agriculture, Canadian Federation of Agriculture, Agricultural Producers Association of Saskatchewan and Keystone Agricultural Producers at the Port of Vancouver last week to discuss ways to improve the grain-handling and transportation system. PHOTO: ALLAN DAWSON
BY ALLAN DAWSON Co-operator staff / Vancouver, B.C.
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rairie farm leaders praised CN Rail for agreeing to meet here last week to discuss ways to improve Western Canada’s grain-handling and transportation system. “I was impressed with the openness of CN,” Keystone Agricultural Producers (KAP) president Dan Mazier said in an interview. “I think they were genuine today.” Mazier and representatives from the Alberta Federation of Agriculture, Canadian Federation of Agriculture and Agricultural Producers Association of Saskatchewan (APAS) took part. The Manitoba Co-operator also attended the two-day event, which included a visit to Cargill’s grain export terminal, a tour of the port and a meeting with Canadian Grain Commission officials. “The (grain) transportation file has been on people’s mind since 2013-14 and we really haven’t had a chance to talk to the railways and hear their side of the story,” Mazier said.
CN welcomed the chance of the meeting, said Kate Fenske, regional manager of public and government affairs. CN is planning more farmer outreach at events like Agribition, she added.
Leaving the script Doug MacDonald, CN’s vice-president of bulk commodities, peppered with farmers’ questions, quickly abandoned his prepared presentation. Did you cut locomotives in 2013? No, that was the other railway. What went wrong? Record cold and a record crop. Didn’t the grain companies warn you about a monster crop? Not until the end of September, which was too late. [Western Grain Elevator Association ( WGEA) executive director Wade Sobkowich said in a phone interview later the railways were warned verbally in June 2013. This year the warning was in writing.] “A s p r o d u c e r s , i n e f f i c i e n c i e s between the railroads and grain companies is what costs us money because we pay the demurrage on it,” Moose Jaw farmer and APAS representative
Terry Anthony told MacDonald. “We’d like to see you guys fine-tune your end of it a little better and it looks like you’ve started doing that.” There have been improvements, but disruptions can still happen, MacDonald said. He explained CN’s new contract system, which includes ‘reciprocal penalties.’ Under the program launched in May, CN is offering 72 per cent of its car supply — about 5,500 cars a week in the fall and 4,000 in the dead of winter — to companies to contract. Contracting ensures a shipper will get a car in a specified week or the railways pay a $100-a-car penalty. Grain companies pay the same fine if they don’t take the car within a specified week. About 50 per cent of available cars are being contracted weekly, MacDonald said. Cars that aren’t contracted go back to the spot market pool. If spot orders exceed supply they are divided up equally. “So if I can only supply 90 per cent of the cars for the remaining orders eveSee CN MEETING on page 6 »
BY EXTENSION: MBFI does producer outreach right » PAGE 13