(The following story by Maurice Bridge appeared on the Vancouver Sun website on November 6.)
VANCOUVER, B.C. — Communities along the BC Rail line continued to complain Wednesday about being left out of the provincial government’s plans to lease the rails to a private operator.
“We want to know here in Williams Lake the job impact this is going to have on our community,” said Councillor Scott Nelson.
“We’ve already been hard hit in the northern part of the province with the beetle-kill, with the lumber issues, with the mad-cow issues.
“All those things have simply been hurting our resource-based communities tremendously, and to pull out another $5 million to $6 million out of our community in Williams Lake right now is just simply absurd.”
Nelson says $5 million to $6 million is the total amount of direct and indirect economic activity generated in the region by BC Rail, and the private sector needs to know what is likely to happen to it when a private operator is named.
The provincial government is expected to make its choice by the end of the year between CN, CP and a joint venture between OmniTRAX and Burlington Northern Santa Fe.
In 100 Mile House, Mayor Judy Barnett said she is concerned about the promised transparency of the process to select a private operator
“I have heard no progress reports as to whether the shippers are satisfied and I understand they’re not from talking to the shippers,” she said. “The needs of the shippers have not been addressed, according to the letter I got from the shippers, and they’re the biggest customer of the railway.”
Williams Lake city council voted last week not to support the deal until its concerns about consultation were met.
It was followed this week by Prince George city council, which voted on Monday to ask the government for a two-year moratorium on the deal.
Transportation Minister Judith Reid indicated Tuesday that no moratorium would be forthcoming.
The successful bidder would pay the provincial government a substantial amount to take over a 30-year lease on the BCR, and Nelson believes that is the main driver for the deal.
“I think what they’re looking at the huge bonus they’re going to get from the $400 million or $500 million down. They want to use that for other investment purposes.”
Critics of the deal displayed a leaked internal BCR document this week which shows BCR’s financial performance outpaced every regional railway in North America in the third quarter. BCR representative Alan Dever did not dispute the figures, noting that operating income for the year-to-date is $70.5 million.
Nelson says attempts by the community to get information from Victoria have been rebuffed.
“Every time we’ve asked for something, we get a fantastic press release saying how wonderful things are going, but no information,” he said.
“We’ve said tell us what the impacts are going to be — you’ve got three proposals in front of you, tell us what the impacts are going to be — and they’ve done zip, zero, zilch.
“They simply have forgotten about us up here in the north.”
However, the deal got some support in Vancouver Wednesday from the Vancouver Board of Trade.
“Running a freight railway is not a core business of government, regardless of whether it’s making money or losing it,” said managing director Darcy Rezac.
“Any of the three railways seeking to take over its operations would integrate BCR into their vast North American networks and with those economies of scale, they would be able to offer better rates and faster service to shippers.”
Rezac said resource industries and the communities which depend on them could expect to see reduced transportation costs and a resulting increase in competitiveness for their products.