(The Canadian Press circulated the following story on April 5.)
WINNIPEG — The Western Grain Elevator Association said Tuesday it’s being let down by Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd. and Canadian National Railway Co., the rail carriers who transport its crops top market, and want the two to address its concerns.
“Over the past four years farmers, and in turn grain handling companies, have witnessed well below-average production levels and therefore lower-than-average exports of grains and oilseeds,” Wade Sobkowich, the association’s executive director, said in a news release.
The association said the current year’s production of 53 million tonnes, while up from “disastrous” 2002-03 production of 30.6 million tonnes and last year’s 46.5 million tonnes, “will nonetheless result in below-average exports due to the poor quality of the crop.”
“However, both CN and CP continue to struggle this year in spotting cars in the country
for loading and, once loaded, in providing timely delivery to the customer.”
Sobkowich said member companies of the association have expressed frustration over the
railways’ “inability to provide regular and consistent service on the prairies.”
The association, which represents nine farmer-owned, public and private grain businesses that handle more than 90 per cent western Canada’s bulk grain exports, said it is concerned about “inconsistent and unreliable delivery of cars to Canadian ports, domestic markets and to their customers in the United States and Mexico.”
“These railway service concerns are occurring in a year when exports of grains and oilseeds are less than average. This begs the question – how will CN and CP respond when production and export levels return to more normal levels, let alone a bumper crop?” Sobkowich said.
Members of the association own grain handling facilities throughout the country and at the ports of Prince Rupert, B.C., Vancouver and Thunder Bay, Ont.