Even though nothing terrifies me more than the phrase "don't worry I'm
from the government and I'm here to help", this situation does require
immediate action and long term vision. Here are some thoughts for things
that can get done that will not by over bearing.
1) Void all agreements on remaining farmer owned and abandoned elevators
preventing rail loading IMMEDIATELY and halt producer siding de-listing.
I would like to see this go one step further and prevent anything other
than farmer ownership in the future but I won't push my luck.
2) Let's fill Churchill. I've heard that CN has been screwing HBRC as
bad as us. Let's figure out how to get that terminal full to the rafters
so when the ice clears it's ready to steam.
3) Short/Medium term let's help the Hudson Bay route association
(http://www.hbra.ca/)get their vision up and running starting with a
producer car loading site at The Pas, 1,500mt would be a nice start and
would certainly help CN reconsider their service standards. The oil
industry is also eyeing up Churchill so let's make sure we work together
and keep our share.
4) Thunder Bay has piles of unused capacity, most of it's old, not
pretty and it's slow but it helps build surge capacity and many of the
sites have truck unload facilities. If I'm not mistaken there's no
reason barges couldn't haul grain through the Chicago canal and out
through the Mississippi system. Regardless, as it stands today the track
Deluth price is higher by a dime or so than than Minneapolis.
3) Since Harper and Wall are so business friendly let's invite some of
the U.S. rails to build producer loading sites on our side of the
border, that goes for the other provinces as well. Five of them would be
a good start, same goes for storage I would say the would need a minimum
of 1500mt to get them going with long term plans to build large volume
HTP's on site.
4) Longer term, but not too long re-open the west leg of the Crow's Nest
Rail line for empty and light return traffic, the bed is already there.
Maybe there could be a subsidy paid to CPR named after the line to
encourage development and use for return traffic.
5) End the political BS that's preventing Prince Rupert from being used
to it's potential. I would even go so far as to suggest at least one
more terminal should be built there.
6) A long term plan to build up ocean ready grain facilities from about
1.5mmt now to 10mmt. If we are going to be growing 50mmt crops we need
to be able to get 20% there and stored when weather is good. This
becomes increasingly important as places such Argentina continues to
develop port and water ways to the point where they will soon be able to
load panamax vessels 420km inland and only 25% of grain is stored on
farm.
7)Help establish a farmer directed group to manage independent export
sales and logistic. In fact I believe we already have a defacto
government organization with the skills and experience to such a thing.
Other responsibilities of this group would be providing daily cash
quotes for grain at all major north american points of export. This is
also something that could possibly be administered by the Inland
Terminal Association.
8) Let's get the CGC to do something useful for a change and act as an
umbrella organization to allocate rail cars in a fair and equitable
manner. Also give them the power to enforce grain contracts.
Just some suggestions for non invasive policy changes that will help now
and in the future. Something other than bitching. If the feed back is
good I'll draft a letter to the folks in charge.
from the government and I'm here to help", this situation does require
immediate action and long term vision. Here are some thoughts for things
that can get done that will not by over bearing.
1) Void all agreements on remaining farmer owned and abandoned elevators
preventing rail loading IMMEDIATELY and halt producer siding de-listing.
I would like to see this go one step further and prevent anything other
than farmer ownership in the future but I won't push my luck.
2) Let's fill Churchill. I've heard that CN has been screwing HBRC as
bad as us. Let's figure out how to get that terminal full to the rafters
so when the ice clears it's ready to steam.
3) Short/Medium term let's help the Hudson Bay route association
(http://www.hbra.ca/)get their vision up and running starting with a
producer car loading site at The Pas, 1,500mt would be a nice start and
would certainly help CN reconsider their service standards. The oil
industry is also eyeing up Churchill so let's make sure we work together
and keep our share.
4) Thunder Bay has piles of unused capacity, most of it's old, not
pretty and it's slow but it helps build surge capacity and many of the
sites have truck unload facilities. If I'm not mistaken there's no
reason barges couldn't haul grain through the Chicago canal and out
through the Mississippi system. Regardless, as it stands today the track
Deluth price is higher by a dime or so than than Minneapolis.
3) Since Harper and Wall are so business friendly let's invite some of
the U.S. rails to build producer loading sites on our side of the
border, that goes for the other provinces as well. Five of them would be
a good start, same goes for storage I would say the would need a minimum
of 1500mt to get them going with long term plans to build large volume
HTP's on site.
4) Longer term, but not too long re-open the west leg of the Crow's Nest
Rail line for empty and light return traffic, the bed is already there.
Maybe there could be a subsidy paid to CPR named after the line to
encourage development and use for return traffic.
5) End the political BS that's preventing Prince Rupert from being used
to it's potential. I would even go so far as to suggest at least one
more terminal should be built there.
6) A long term plan to build up ocean ready grain facilities from about
1.5mmt now to 10mmt. If we are going to be growing 50mmt crops we need
to be able to get 20% there and stored when weather is good. This
becomes increasingly important as places such Argentina continues to
develop port and water ways to the point where they will soon be able to
load panamax vessels 420km inland and only 25% of grain is stored on
farm.
7)Help establish a farmer directed group to manage independent export
sales and logistic. In fact I believe we already have a defacto
government organization with the skills and experience to such a thing.
Other responsibilities of this group would be providing daily cash
quotes for grain at all major north american points of export. This is
also something that could possibly be administered by the Inland
Terminal Association.
8) Let's get the CGC to do something useful for a change and act as an
umbrella organization to allocate rail cars in a fair and equitable
manner. Also give them the power to enforce grain contracts.
Just some suggestions for non invasive policy changes that will help now
and in the future. Something other than bitching. If the feed back is
good I'll draft a letter to the folks in charge.