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Saskatchewan farm group and Ministers feel grain will move easier this harvest

Oct 21, 2016 | 6:44 AM

Federal Transport Minister Marc Garneau doesn’t think there will be a problem with grain transportation by rail this year.

Garneau and federal Agriculture Minister Lawrence MacAulay held a meeting Thursday in Saskatoon with more than a dozen farm groups as part of the development of a long-term plan for transportation in Canada.

“CP and CN are equipped to handle the large grain harvested this year,” Garneau said. “Everything I’ve seen and heard from both of them leads me to believe they won’t have any issues.”

The second largest crop on record is getting ready to hit the rail cars and that has some farmers worried because of the issues of moving grain back in 2013.

“I don’t actually think it will be a problem,” said President of the Agricultural Producers Association of Saskatchewan, Norm Hall. “The other commodities such as oil and potash aren’t taking up the cars anymore, which was the main problem back in 13.”

Year over year, railroads are down 225,000 rail cars according to Hall.

“We have put together reports to fix the transportation of grain problem,” MacAulay said. “I’m sure down the road we will create a much better transportation system in this country.”

Saskatchewan Agriculture Minister Lyle Stewart said he thinks Garneau understands the magnitude of the problem.

“I personally talked about the fact that up to 90 per cent of our ag produce is exported and it was $15.3 billion last year and we are land-locked, totally. There’s only one way to get it out of here, and that’s by rail,” said Stewart.

This year, CN has launched a new online site for information on its weekly western Canadian grain movements. Two large headlines pop up when the page opens: “Pulling together for the big harvest” and “Keeping grain moving.”

Canadian Pacific Railway said it’s ready to move what’s expected to be close to a record crop, but that the grain isn’t ready because wet weather is contributing to a late harvest.

Railway president Keith Creel said Wednesday that CP has increased its grain train lengths about 11 per cent in the past quarter and aims to add another 10 cars to reach 134 cars to boost efficiency.

“CN is usually on time. CP is a concern because they usually aren’t on time,” Hall said. “If CP isn’t moving the grain on time it affects the bottom line for farmers.”

–with files from The Canadian Press.

 

jmarshall@rawlco.com

On Twitter: @JTMarshallCKOM