Mr. Speaker, I am proud to stand today to speak to Bill C-30, Fair Rail for Grain Farmers Act.
Today we debate this important bill that has the singular purpose of improving our supply chain and rail logistics in Canada. Since its introduction on Wednesday, the ministers of agriculture and transport have been out on the ground, meeting with stakeholders in that supply chain and working hard to ensure that this gets done properly and quickly.
The current transportation challenges affect all players in the supply chain, and it is essential that Canadian shippers remain competitive in domestic and international markets. Our government is focused on a way forward that will benefit all shippers, selling every commodity from grain to oil, and that will continue to grow our resource economy.
That is why we are taking immediate action to get all commodities moving faster, through legislation and regulations that are designed to increase supply chain transparency, strengthen contracts between producers and shippers, and help ensure the entire grain handling and transportation system is working at peak capacity. This legislation addresses the immediate needs of our economy and longer-term challenges because our economy needs a system that works today and tomorrow, with the capacity to move what is grown.
Yes, we are counting on all sides of the House of Commons to do the right thing and help us to implement these critical measures as quickly as possible. Our economy depends on it. As we all know, farmers delivered a record crop last year, one-third higher than the previous year and 50% higher than average. As many have said, if this type of performance is expected to be the new normal, we must prepare for that. That is what this legislation is about.
Farmers have not been able to deliver their grain to port or to customers, meaning that they do not have cash to finance their operators or storage capacity for next year's crop. A record $5 billion worth of grain could be sitting in farmers' bins, heading into the next crop year.
That is why earlier this month, we brought forward an order in council under the Canada Transportation Act to stabilize the national transportation system and to get grain moving to port. The order in council requires the Canadian National and Canadian Pacific Railways to move a minimum quantity of western regulated grain each week. We are now building upon that order in council.
We will amend the Canada Transportation Act so that it includes the power to regulate volume requirements, as necessary, and extend the interswitching distances to 160 km for all commodities in the Prairies. We will also amend the Canada Grain Act in order to regulate grain contract provisions; require other information to increase transparency of the performance of railways, ports and terminals; and create the regulatory authority to add greater specificity to service level agreements, as requested by all shippers.
These concrete and comprehensive measures will take effect immediately after they are passed.
Under the bill, we will amend the Canada Transportation Act to set out minimum volumes of grain, in extraordinary circumstances, that railways are required to transport, at the joint recommendation of the Minister of Transport and the Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food. This change would provide greater predictability for shippers and producers, supporting specific volume performance requirements and ensuring that the supply chain is prepared to respond to peak demand.
Second, our government is creating the regulatory authority to enable the Canadian Transportation Agency to extend interswitching distances to 160 kilometres from 30 kilometres for all commodities on the prairies. Interswitching is an operation performed by railway companies in which one carrier picks up cars from a shipper and drops off these cars to another carrier that performs the line haul.
Increasing the access that farmers and elevators have to the lines of competing railway companies will increase competition among railways for business and give shippers more transportation options. Up to 150 elevators would then have access to more than one railway, compared to only 14 right now. This will increase competition among railways as well as the grain elevators for farmers' business.
Third, we will amend the Canada Grain Act to strengthen contracts between producers and shippers. Regulatory provisions could be created to require that grain companies compensate producers if they do not honour their contracts.
Fourth, we are establishing regulatory power to add great specificity to service level agreements, as asked for by all shippers. We will do this by defining in regulations which operational requirements would be mandatory in these agreements.
These are the immediate measures we are taking in this legislation to get the grain moving now and over the coming months. But we are not stopping there.
We will also require the railways to deliver more timely and detailed data on grain movement. This will help in monitoring the performance of the supply chain. The Canadian Transportation Agency will also gather information from all grain supply chain partners on shipping capacities and plans prior to each new crop year.
This legislation will allow us to adopt clear and realistic solutions so that Canadian shippers have access to a world-class logistics system that will ensure predictable and timely shipping of Canada's agricultural and other products to markets.
Today we are also announcing that the government will expedite the review of the Canada Transportation Act, which will focus first on rail transportation.
This expedited review will evaluate solutions to the structural problems of the grain supply chain and determine how to amend the Canada Transportation Act in order to create a more flexible system.
Taken together, these measures would strengthen contracts between producers and shippers, improve performance by railways, and help ensure that the entire supply chain is working at full capacity.
As the minister of agriculture for Alberta said:
We are pleased that the federal government has brought forward the Fair Rail for Grain Farmers Act, which addresses some of our concerns and will help strengthen rail transportation system performance in the immediate- and long-term.
The minister of agriculture for Manitoba said:
The Manitoba government supports this move as it means trains will be able to travel longer distances along other rail companies’ tracks and will improve Manitoba’s access to the port in Churchill as well as important U.S. markets
Finally, the Canadian Canola Growers Association said:
The measures announced in yesterday’s Bill, along with other efforts recently implemented demonstrate that Government is listening to farmers concerns.
This legislation is not the final step. Our government will continue to engage the full value chain and the provinces to look at the challenges of transporting this year's record harvest and identify all and any improvements moving forward. At the same time, our government will continue to build a stronger grain sector through an aggressive trade and innovation agenda.
We are looking forward to the debate in the House today. This legislation will be moving to committee as soon as possible. I do look to my colleagues in the other parties to support this important legislation before the House.