The Canadian Federation of Agriculture (CFA) is urging Transport Minister Marc Garneau to meet directly with farmers to discuss the current state of rail transportation.

CFA recently submitted recommendations as part of the federal government's consultation on the Canadian Transportation Agency review (the Emerson report).

"Policy makers must understand that grain farmers are on the hook for all shipping costs," said CFA President Ron Bonnett. "Farmers paid the railways a total of $1.4 billion to move grain to port last year, plus fees for disruptions and delays, and even penalties charged by shipping companies when their vessels have to wait at port. It's imperative that Minister Garneau takes the time to meet with farm leaders. They have a critical financial stake in this matter. We are certainly grateful for the discussions we've had with Agriculture Minister Lawrence MacAulay, but we understand that the final decisions coming out of the CTA review will rest with Minister Garneau."

There is concern that with a good crop this year, we could see a repeat of the rail transportation bottleneck that happened in 2013-2014 due to the railways' inability to fulfill shipping contracts and deliver grain to exporters on time.

"At the core of these issues is the reality that western grain transportation system is nearly devoid competitive freight options," said Bonnett. "Most farmers can only access one railway to transport their grain to export positions. That's why CFA stresses that regulation through Maximum Revenue Entitlement (MRE) and provisions like interswitching are essential - they protect farmers from monopolistic practices of rail companies. Farmers strongly disagree with the Emerson report recommendation to dismantle the MRE program within 7 years, and to sunset interswitching options."

CFA recommends that in addition to maintaining the MRE, the government must change the way the MRE is calculated by using more accurate measures than a simple inflation index based on freight cost data from 1992. CFA would like to see MRE emulate freight rates that would be in place in an open and competitive rail transportation system.

CFA also recommends that Minister Garneau immediately initiate a costing review of the rail system. The current rates are determined through rates established from a costing review conducted almost 25 years ago.