(The following story by Jordie Dwyer appeared on the Nipawin Journal website on February 5.)
NIPAWIN, Sask. — There will soon be grain cars moving on the railway tracks between Nipawin and Choiceland.
A group of farmers from the Choiceland, Garrick and White Fox area and Canadian Pacific Railway, which operates the line, were able to come to a mediated settlement last week after about a day and a half of talks in Saskatoon.
Ron Shymanski, spokesman for the group of about 30 farmers, was very pleased the talks turned out.
“This agreement is definitely good news for the farmers up here,” he said. “We just want to make this work and now we have the chance. Everyone came to the table wanting to get something done and it happened. It’s great news.”
CP spokesperson Leah Olson said the company was also pleased the sides were able to strike an agreement.
“CP is very happy that we could come to a mutually beneficial agreement,” she said.
“Both sides showed the willingness early in the discussions to get an agreement done and that resulted in being able to come together on the issues.”
The agreement will see producer cars shipped to two rail sidings – one each in Choiceland and White Fox – if there is a minimum of 25 cars that can be collected on each train trip.
Shymanski added that the Garrick site was to be part of the package, but ended up being a casualty in order to get an agreement done.
There are presently about 28 grain cars on order with the Canadian Grain Commission for area producers. It is hoped that the necessary grain cars will be located for allocation to the producers and then be delivered by CP.
Other issues that need to be finalized prior to delivery of the cars include insurance and access rights to the private land at each of the sites.
Work has begun by both sides on getting the outstanding issues finalized and, depending on how quickly that work is completed, the grain cars could be at the sites and ready for loading within two to three weeks.
The disagreement began back in November when the producers held a meeting in Garrick to decide their next step after getting nowhere with officials from CP Rail on getting the producers cars that have been on order since August. CP officials had told Shymanski they were not going to run any trains on the line and that producers could load their cars at the site in Nipawin.
The group approved going ahead with a formal level of service complaint to the Canadian Transportation Agency with the suggestion that mediation be an option to a formal hearing.