Remove The Cap

[Hopalong]

Report is on website at Canada Transportation Act review.

[farmaholic]

I read the Grain Transportation portion of the report.

I should read it over again. The first two thirds were a bit of a history lesson and the current state of affairs. The last third seems to lay out recommondations and the perceived/anticipated results of such.

One thing that surprised me was the report stated that 44% of the hoppercar fleet is owned by the Fed and Prov Govs and the remaining by the new CWB/G3 and railways. I thought Ritz said the CWB never
owned anything.... why the need to differentiate? I guess they let them go with all the other stuff it "never" owned. Gov cars----CWB cars, was there a difference? Doesn't matter anymore, different topic altogether.

Hoppy,.. over time I think you're going to get what you're looking for.

How much can you see rates increasing? I SERIOUSLY doubt they will decrease. Freight is already about 10-12%(?)of the value of port prices. If the prices drop...it will accrue to the shippers and do you think we, as Producers, will capture any of it? We will likely pay for the increases but unlikely to see reductions from savings....cynical as usual.

[wmoebis]

Are the elevators still getting $18/tonne for loading 100 car unit trains? That was once passed on to producers as "Trucking incentives".

[farmaholic]

And there will be the issue. The basis will never be broken down into the components that make it up. We will only have to determine what is a fair basis. We are only three years past monopoly era deductions. The further away we get the harder it will be to compare to the once transparent deductions. I don't know what the negotiated rate for unit trains are. At least elevation costs have to be registered with the CGC.

How do I recover any extra freight costs? East - West we are just about in the worst freight postition possible. Sucks to be us.

[stonepicker]

Farmaholic, when were deductions ever transparent? Do you forget during the--- era the huge spread between export prices and what we actually received at the farm gate? There was no accountability in the past. What business in the world tells you the price they sold a product for and what their margin was? ( on a sale by sale basis )

[farmaholic]

I was referring to the deductions off the cheque .... freight, elevation, terminal cleaning, weighing and inspection. At the end it was about $60/tonne ($1.65/bu-wht).

Re: port prices versus farmgate prices is there any difference in transparency today versus CWB era?

[Hopalong]

farmaholic, can see rates coming in line with United States levels, also in line with other commodities.
Think globalization and integration will continue with US on grain shipping as it has with other aspects of grain handling and marketing.
Likely to growers longer term advantage to be part of international systems and agreements rather than fight for Canada first policy.

[bucket]

Hopalong

Until canada adapts the same policies as the US for farm supports you are just hoping for your neighbors to go broke.

Not really sure if the outcome will be all you think when this is over.

Pretty shortsighted.

The US and Japan signed side deals on TPP to protect their trade. What... you think as farmers they might let us in on some of that. Naive.

[bucket]

And when the US was having trouble moving crop the railways were hauled in front of the STB and were not allowed to tell the government to **** off like in canada.

Alot has to change before the MRE is eliminated.