The provincial government is now calling for the federal government to step in and end the issues plaguing the shipment of grain.
In a media release Monday, the government said that the grain companies, the railways and the federal government must all commit to action. The release called on the feds to "immediately oversee negotiations between the grain companies and CP and CN that will establish specific parameters around getting grain from the farm gate to ships at port."
The province noted that meetings had been held with CN and CP last week in Montreal and Calgary. There were also meetings with grain companies in Regina and Winnipeg.
Economy Minister Bill Boyd said in a statement Monday that both CN and CP Rail indicated they were "prepared to negotiate and sign level of service agreements with grain shippers with reciprocal penalties and we are asking the federal government to immediately ensure this happens."
"Railway companies assured us they are ramping up to have thousands more grain cars per week taking grain to ports and this will be sustained until at least December 2014. Grain companies told us they could quickly move to provide service 24 hours a day if the grain reaches them."
Provincial ministers say they believe a co-operative effort between the feds, rail and grain companies will "see dramatic efficiencies in the system." The province says they are also supporting moves by the federal government toward more accountability and transparency in the system, including things such as weekly reporting requirements around actual car spots, loading at country elevators, delivery of cars to ports and unloading reports at ports.
Agriculture Minister Lyle Stewart added the provincial government "will be monitoring the situation on a daily basis to see if both the grain companies and the rail companies come through."
Locally, Vicki Dutton of Toepfer International Western Grain and Processing Division, has said the backlog of grain has put farmers in a cash flow crunch - especially when it comes to preparing for the upcoming crop year.
Dutton said recently farmers have been telling her they don't have enough money to buy fertilizer because they haven't been able to move their grain. The fertilizer companies are telling the farmers that if they can't pay for it now, the order can't be placed, she says.
"There is a feeling that people just aren't going to get the fertilizer they need because they can't move the grain to pay for it," says Dutton.
She went on to say, "Pulse Canada has had, for a number of years, a study on the rail transportation network, so this problem didn't surface just this year."
It's been an ongoing problem, she says.
"But it's just made absolutely worse this year because of the large crop and because of the increasing oil shipments on these lines and it's resulting in a lack of liquidity - and this lack of liquidity is costing farmers so much money."
Dutton says only the federal government can address the rail transportation problem. It's ironic, she has said, that this is happening in federal agriculture minister Gerry Ritz's "own backyard."
