A central Saskatchewan farmer says he’s filed an official level-of-service complaint against Canadian National Railway (CN) in its plans to delist over four dozen producer car-loading sites.
Cam Goff, who farms at Hanley, about 55 km south of Saskatoon, and is also an elected member of the Canadian Wheat Board’s board of directors, said in a personal release Monday he had filed his complaint with the Canadian Transportation Agency (CTA).
CN said earlier this summer it would delist a total of 53 sites across all three Prairie provinces, citing little if any use of those sidings by farmers in the past several years.
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Inspection and maintenance of those sites and over 120 remaining producer-car sidings is done at the railway’s expense.
The sidings were slated for closure Sept. 6 but the federal government in September extracted a promise from CN that the company would keep them all listed until at least the end of 2009.
Producer cars are railway hopper cars that farmers can order to load themselves at a rail siding or producer-loading facility that’s sited closer to home than the nearest grain terminal.
The delisted sites, in conjunction with previous closures over the past several years, deprives “thousands” of Prairie farmers access to local rail service, and denies them the ability to save well over $1,000 per producer car shipped, Goff said in his release.
Goff’s complaint calls on the CTA to refuse to allow the delisting of any more sites, and to deny the removal of infrastructure from any sites already delisted.
“Such action by the CTA would allow the opportunity to establish a process which would allow all parties affected by site closures to have input into the decision,” he wrote. “As it now stands, the railways have the ability to unilaterally decide which sites to close.”
Also, he said, such a delay in dismantling rail sidings would allow a federal rail service review panel to examine the issue of public producer car loading sites and “become involved in resolving this matter.” A final report from that review is due in mid-2010.
Goff, who describes himself as a “farmer and producer car loader,” grows barley, canola, wheat, durum, oats, flax, peas, mustard, lentils and chickpeas on 5,000 acres, according to the CWB. He and wife Beverley also run an ag supply business.
