THURSDAY, APRIL 3, 2014
VOL. 92 | NO. 14 | $4.25
IT’S 6,600 KILOMETRES TO ABBEY ROAD
It’s not quite the Beatles’ iconic Abbey Road album cover. It’s Ritchie Bros. auction yard during a March 25 sale in Saskatoon. More photos from the sale will appear next week and online at www.producer.com. | WILLIAM DEKAY PHOTO
GROWING WITH FARMERS FOR 90 YEARS
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Mission Im-pulse-ible
WWW.PRODUCER.COM
Annual competition asks food students to find new ways to use pulses | P. 19
Rail service bill praised, panned Mixed reviews | Fair Rail for Grain Farmers Act earns jabs and cheers from grain industry BY BRIAN CROSS SASKATOON NEWSROOM
Fe d e ra l l e g i s l at i o n a i m e d at improving rail service for the western Canadian grain industry is receiving mixed reviews. Some industry stakeholders are praising the Fair Rail for Grain Farmers Act, suggesting it will increase supply chain transparency, enhance railway competition and ensure that more prairie grain is moved to market in a timely manner. Others are calling Ottawa’s efforts a step in the right direction but they caution that the true impact of the proposed legislation will remain largely unknown until regulatory provisions within the bill are more accurately defined. Still others say the bill does not go far enough to solve a supply-chain logjam that has already cost the industry billions of dollars. As expected, reaction from the railway industry has been negative. Canadian Pacific Railway said the proposed legislation will do nothing
Canada’s two railway companies say the bill will damage the Canadian rail transportation system. | FILE PHOTO to increase grain movement and has the potential to cause “great damage to the Canadian rail transportation system.” Canadian National Railway called
the bill heavy-handed and intrusive, saying if it is passed, it will drain traffic away from Canadian ports, reduce investment, eliminate jobs and subject CN’s business to “unfair poach-
ing by U.S. railways.” “CN is disturbed that the government has decided to punish railways with re-regulation for an outsized crop and winter conditions totally beyond their control,” said president Claude Mongeau. “The legislation does not address the root cause of the current grain situation and will do little to move more grain, now or in the future. We also have deep concerns about the potential consequences of the government’s proposed new (railway) interswitching rules.” The Fair Rail for Grain Farmers Act was introduced to Parliament March 26. The complex bill is intended to address supply chain constraints that have delayed grain shipments across the West, damaged Canada’s global reputation as a reliable supplier of grain and cost the industry billions of dollars in demurrage, lost marketing opportunities and discounted domestic commodity prices. CONTINUED ON NEXT PAGE
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u|xhHEEJBy00001pzYv,:% APRIL 3, 2014 Return undeliverable Canadian addresses to: Box 2500, Saskatoon, SK. S7K 2C4 The Western Producer is published in Saskatoon by Western Producer Publications, which is owned by GVIC Communications Corp. Publisher: Shaun Jessome Publications Mail Agreement No. 40069240
TRANSPORTATION | RAIL SERVICE