(The following appeared at CBC.ca on January 21.)
OTTAWA — Five grain shippers and the Canadian Wheat Board say they have won a major victory against CN Rail in a complaint over service to smaller shippers.
The companies filed a complaint with the Canadian Transportation Agency last year, alleging the rail company, the country’s largest, failed to provide adequate service to smaller shippers.
On Friday, the CTA ruled CN “failed to meet its level of service obligations to the Canadian Wheat Board and five other shippers for services provided for crop year 2006-07.”
The main issue was a CN policy that allowed companies to pre-book grain-hopper cars only in blocks of 100, booked for 42 consecutive weeks to a single destination.
That left smaller shippers unable to guarantee shipments — and even the cars they could book didn’t always arrive.
“This system essentially prevented participation by smaller shippers and those without multiple terminals. It also failed to satisfy the diverse needs of Prairie farmers in moving their grain to port,” the wheat board stated in a release Friday.
‘Creep process’ could lead to no cars: shipper
Garnet Ferguson, manager for North East Terminal Ltd. in Wadena, thought service would improve after a ruling last July that directed CN to make changes to its car allocation and ordering program.
But when service didn’t change, he’d had enough.
“We felt if we didn’t stop the creep process that CN was implementing — just changing the rules a little a year — we felt that at some point, there would just be no turning back and we would get no cars.”
Ferguson’s company filed the complaint along with the Canadian Wheat Board and four other grain shippers — Paterson Grain, Parrish and Heimbecker Limited, Providence Grain Group Inc. and North West Terminal Ltd. Friday’s ruling came as a relief, Ferguson said.
“This is part of our business that we shouldn’t have to be worrying about.”
Wheat board spokeswoman Maureen Fitzhenry was also pleased with the ruling.
“That’s really, really good that they’re going to be sort of looking over the shoulder of CN to make sure that what goes on, from this point, is going to satisfy its legal obligations,” she said.
CN makes changes
Officials with CN Rail said the company is still evaluating the ruling.
Spokesman Jim Feeney said the company has already made many of the changes the CTA recommended, noting that service to small companies actually increased in the last year.
The CTA ruling recognizes that CN has revised its grain product programs for 2007-08 in an effort to address shortfalls. However, the transportation agency also said it had insufficient information to rule on the 2007-08 crop year at this time.
It has ordered CN and the six shippers to file service information for the period of August 2007 to April 2008, adding that “the agency will be able to make a final determination on the adequacy of CN’s service to grain shippers once it has all the necessary information.”
Under the Canada Transportation Act, shippers can file a complaint if they believe railway companies fail to provide adequate and suitable service to them.
(With files from the Canadian Press.)