Minister of Transport, the Hon. Marc Garneau, supported by the Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food, the Hon. Lawrence MacAulay introduced transportation legislation that will improve the industry’s ability to consistently and reliably meet customer demands.
“Cereals Canada welcomes the legislative changes to grain transportation,” stated Cam Dahl, President of Cereals Canada. “The grain, oilseed and special crops industries have been united in our call for measures that will help ensure railway accountability for performance. The legislation today will help correct the imbalance between the market power of the railways and captive shippers.”
The legislation includes the following key elements:
- tools that will allow shippers to hold railways financially accountable for their service performance;
- improved processes through the Canadian Transportation Agency (CTA);
- clarification of railway responsibility in the Canada Transportation Act by better defining adequate and suitable service;
- permanent access to long-haul interswitching options (vs. temporary extended interswitching); and
- increased requirements for reporting and railway contingency planning.
“The grain industry is captive to monopoly carriers,” continued Dahl. “It is good economic policy for legislation to balance this market power through measures that mimic what would occur if there were open competition. The policies announced today would accomplish this goal.”
“While the most important part of the legislation is the increase in railway accountability, all of these provisions are important,” noted Dahl. “Improving CTA processes are important to ensure problems are caught and addressed before they snowball into major failures. Together with clarification to the meaning of adequate and suitable railway service this will help ensure that the Canadian transportation system meets the expectations of our customers – both within Canada and internationally.”
“Cereals Canada thanks both Minister Garneau and Minister MacAulay, their staff and the Departments for their efforts on this critical issue. We look forward to continuing to work with them to move the policies announced today into legislative reality.” concluded Dahl.
Source : Cereals Canada