THURSDAY, MARCH 24, 2011
VOL. 89 | NO. 12 | $3.75
SPRING IS CLOSE WHEN ... P98
SERVING WESTERN CANADIAN FARM FAMILIES SINCE 1923
|
WWW.PRODUCER.COM
GRAIN TRANSPORTATION | RAIL SERVICE REVIEW
Gov’t takes action to boost rail service Shippers entitled to service contracts | Gov’t plans six month timeline for action
FREIGHT SERVICE REVIEW
» The federal government initi-
ated the review in 2008 as part of amendments to the Canada Transportation Act focusing on shipper protections. The review was in response to complaints about poor service, such as rail car supply, timeliness of car delivery and the number supplied compared to the number ordered
BY ROBERT ARNASON BRANDON BUREAU
» Transport minister Rob Merrifield appointed three panelists to the review in September 2009 — Walter Paszkowski, former Alberta transport minister; David Edison, former CN vice-president and Bill LeGrow, retired CN and lumber industry executive
Source: Transport Canada | WP GRAPHIC / FILE PHOTO
grain shippers and railways is welcome news. At the moment, railways have all the power and can issue financial penalties if elevators fail to meet loading deadlines, he said. For instance, penalties can be as high as $90,000 if the elevator fails to load a 100-car train in a specified period of time. “Hopefully the (elevator) companies can negotiate a penalty where if they (railways) don’t deliver, they have to owe us money…. So we’re not always the ones paying out when we miss our targets,” Ritchot said.
Canadian National and Canadian Pacific Railway both said the additional regulations would cause inefficiencies and complicate an already complex system. The government’s announcement comes at an appropriate time, said Rick White, Canadian Canola Growers Association general manager. Oilseed and grain movement has been “near its worst” on parts of the Prairies this year, White said. Ritz said he has heard the complaints this winter regarding the railways’ grain shipping performance. “CN has done a reasonable job of
measuring up…. CP has had some problems. They haven’t taken us seriously…. If I have any words of advice for CP, it would be pull up your socks and get in this race. “If they want to be at the finish line and keep serving Canadian farmers, then they’re going to have to start to measure up,” said Ritz. Granting shippers the right to a service agreement is only one part of the government’s response to the service review. access=subscriber section=news,none,none
SEE BOOSTING RAIL SERVICE, PAGE 2
»
SPECIAL REPORT | PHOSPHORUS SUPPLIES
No shortage of phosphorus, but environmental concerns may restrict use BY ROBERT ARNASON BRANDON BUREAU
Journalists have written dozens of articles in recent years warning of the impending danger of dwindling supplies of phosphorus. Widely read publications, including Forbes, Scientific American and The Times of London, have told readers that peak production of the critical plant nutrient will arrive by 2035, fol-
lowed by a mad scramble for a shrinking and irreplaceable resource. But according to American geologist Steven Van Kauwenbergh, the idea of an impending phosphorus shortage is nothing but a large load of fertilizer. Last September, Van Kauwenbergh and the International Fertilizer Development Centre (IFDC) estimated that there are sufficient phosphate rock reserves to produce phosphate fertilizer for the next 300 to 400 years.
“We don’t think we’re on the verge of a crisis here. Mankind has a while yet to figure this out,” Van Kauwenbergh said. The IFDC report surprised experts and environmentalists who had become fixated on the prospect of rapidly approaching peak phosphorus production, followed by a fall off and rapidly escalating costs. But the information wasn’t a shock to David Asbridge, a fertilizer industry analyst in St. Louis, Missouri.
“There was a lot of media stuff for awhile about running out of phosphates. I don’t know where it came from or who was pushing it. Maybe it was the producers (of fertilizer) trying to get higher prices,” said Asbridge, president and senior economist at NPK Fertilizer Advisory Service. “It appears that we’ve got plenty of phosphates.” access=subscriber section=news,none,none
SEE ENVIRONMENTAL CONCERNS, P. 2
»
u|xhHEEJBy00001pzYv":# MARCH 24, 2011 Return undeliverable Canadian addresses to: Box 2500, Saskatoon, SK. S7K 2C4 The Western Producer is published in Saskatoon by Western Producer Publications, which is owned by GVIC Communications Inc. Publisher, Larry Hertz Publications Mail Agreement No. 40069240; Registration No. 10676
WINNIPEG — The federal government is proposing legislation to level the playing field for grain shippers and counter the railways’ near monopoly, says agriculture minister Gerry Ritz. During a news conference at a grain elevator northwest of Winnipeg March 18, Ritz and transport minister Rob Merrifield released the federal government’s response to the Rail Freight Service Review, a process initiated in 2008 to address concerns about rail service in Canada. T h e g ov e r n m e n t , Me r r i f i e l d announced, will introduce legislation that gives shippers the right to a service agreement with a railway. “This process, this legislation that we’re proposing, will make sure that the farmers and the shippers of farm products are listened to,” Ritz said, following the event in Winnipeg. “Right now there’s no ability to keep people at the table, negotiating towards a commercial agreement…. That’s what legislation does. It creates a hammer that can be used if need be.” If a shipper and a railway cannot negotiate a commercial agreement, the bill will “provide the process to establish a service agreement,” Merrifield said. Henri Ritchot, general manager of Paterson Global Foods’ elevator near Winnipeg, said a requirement for a commercial arrangement between