APAS President invited to speak on Transportation Act
Todd Lewis, the President of the Agricultural Producers of Saskatchewan (APAS), will travel to Ottawa this week to testify on behalf of producers, who are frustrated with the current service level of grain transportation.
Lewis will appear at a special Senate sub-committee discussing Bill C-49, which will make sweeping changes to sea, air and rail transportation.
“Unfortunately, a lot of parts of Saskatchewan are not having a very good shipping season,” he said. “There’s lots of cancelled trains, and the trains that are supposed to be getting filled full of canola have to get filled full of durum for the grain companies so they can make their orders.”
With respect to railway transportation, Bill C-49 amends the current act to allow shippers and railways to impose reciprocal penalties on the rail companies. The bill would also create a new remedy for shippers who have access to the lines of only one railway company at the point of origin or destination of the movement of traffic in circumstances where inter-switching is not available.