Mr. Speaker, the Saskatchewan Wheat Pool has a near monopoly on grain buying on the Altawan and Notukeu rail subdivisions in my riding.
Because the pool is able through zone allocation and car flexing to use its grain car entitlements elsewhere, the elevators on that line have been plugged for more than two weeks.
The railway company will not deliver cars to the few competing elevators or to producers who wish to load their own grain because the competition alone cannot assemble a 50 car train. Farmers in the area are therefore forced to haul grain as much as 80 kilometres over substandard roads while their local elevators are idle.
I am not suggesting that the pool and the railway company collude, but they do share a common interest in limiting the amount of grain shipped off of that line. As less grain is shipped, the line becomes less viable and line abandonment becomes more easy to justify.
As usual, the interests of farmers are being subordinated to those of the grain companies and the railways.