For Immediate Release
SARM Encouraged by Minister Garneau’s Transportation 2030 Speech
The Federal Minister of Transport, Marc Garneau, recently gave a speech on The Future of Transportation in Canada. Many of the items highlighted in the speech are encouraging for the Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities (SARM) as one of its focuses is on rail transportation; specifically, how to improve grain transportation.
After the 2013-14 back-log in grain, the federal government initiated a review of The Canadian Transportation Act. The report has been finalized and the federal government has had the opportunity to study the document. In his speech Minister Garneau talked about amendments that will benefit Saskatchewan’s agriculture producers. The following are a few examples.
- Moving up the review of The Rail Safety Act from 2018 to 2017;
- Introducing requirements for locomotive voice and video recorders to be used during accident investigations;
- Investing $10.1 billion for transportation infrastructure to help eliminate bottlenecks and building more robust trade corridors; and
- Pursuing legislation that will allow reciprocal penalties in service level agreements between railway companies and their customers.
“Grain transportation is something we’ve been working on making improvements to for some time and it looks like our voice has been heard,” said SARM President Ray Orb.
In addition to the legislative and regulatory amendments that will arise from this, SARM is looking forward to continuing to build a good working relationship with major carriers such as CP and CN rail and the Saskatchewan Shortline Railway Association. Through these relationships SARM will continue its efforts to improve grain transportation for Saskatchewan producers.
“There were some good recommendations announced by Minister Garneau and we look forward to further discussion on the Maximum Revenue Entitlement, inter-switching regulations and how best to get to a low carbon economy,” said President Orb.
For more information, please contact:
Jay Meyer
Executive Director
(306) 761-3721
