The Government of Saskatchewan has struck a permanent Rail Transportation Initiative committee with a goal of tackling the grain movement backlog problem.

Arm River-Watrous MLA Greg Brkich, legislative secretary for the Rail Transportation Initiative, said the committee is going to be gathering information on what is causing the movement of grain backlog over the next couple months in order to gain an understanding of what the main issues are. He said the committee is also going to develop a long-range plan, so Saskatchewan farmers do not continue to run into these same grain movement problems in future years.

Brkich said the committee, which is led by Economy Minister Bill Boyd and includes government members such as Agriculture Minister Lyle Stewart and Highways and Infrastructure Minister Nancy Heppner, is going to be looking at meeting with grain companies and the two rail companies to ensure there is a good movement of grain. He said they would also be meeting with members of the federal government to make sure any future legislation that is passed on the federal end works for farmers.

“There still is a backlog, definitely not as bad as it was in spring, but a lot of farmers the last month have been concentrating on seeding, so they haven’t been moving a lot of grain,” said Brkich. “I know there are outstanding contracts that farmers will be looking to fill and I’m not exactly sure how much grain is out there, but I think there is still quite a bit to be brought in.”

As farmers finish seeding and begin trying to move grain again, Brkich said there could be a situation where another backlog is created. He said the committee is going to be monitoring what happens to see how they can ensure there is a steady flow of grain moving out of the province in a timely fashion, so farmers don’t end up losing market access and suffering lower prices for their product as a result.

“We’re looking at another bumper crop coming in and we want to make sure we can flow it to port,” he said. “The minister (Bill Boyd) is the lead on this. He’ll be setting up meetings and we’ll be working on some plans and long-range plans of how we can keep a steady flow.”

Cathy Sproule, agriculture critic for the Saskatchewan NDP, said the Opposition has not been provided with any information of what the Rail Transportation Initiative is, but they’re “hopeful” that the provincial government can make some progress with their federal counterparts to help grain producers get through this and any future crisis. She said the NDP has been “pretty vocal” about what ideas they would like to see to help resolve the grain movement backlog including, but not limited to, ensuring railways are held to account in terms of their responsibility for moving grain.

Sproule said a second initiative they would like to see is the establishment of a national or prairie body tasked with marketing coordination for farmers, so they can better move their grain. She said terminal capacity is also an issue and unless all the terminals in all the ports are used properly the grain movement backlog is going to continue to be a problem in the future.

To read more please see the June 23 print edition of The Davidson Leader.