On Parliament Hill

Canada’s crop industry is a vital part of the Canadian economy.

Current transportation challenges faced by producers present an opportunity for the entire value chain to improve efficiencies and position Canada’s grain sector for future growth.

Our Conservative Government continues to work with all parts of the grain supply chain to strengthen our logistics system so that farmers can get their products to market in a timely manner. We need to ensure that the industry has the right tools and processes in place to achieve measurable improvements in supply chain performance which will lead to greater profitability.

Our Government has taken a long term focus to address logistical challenges with a five year $1.5 million announcement to Pulse Canada on January 21 to lead a multi-sector collaboration project of the pulse, oilseeds and grains industries to improve supply chain efficiency and reliability.

We have taken steps to improve the performance of the entire rail supply chain in order to help farmers get their crops to market which include:

• passing the Fair Rail Freight Service Act, which creates a process to establish service agreements;
• establishing a Crop Logistics Working Group to find ways to improve the performance of the supply chain for all crops;
• investing $25 million to support grain shipments through the Port of Churchill;
• implementing marketing freedom for western Canadian wheat and barley growers;
• investing over $150 million in innovation through the grain research clusters;
• opening a market of half a billion consumers to our farmers across Canada once the Canada-European trade agreement is implemented;
• committed to releasing a Grain Supply Chain Study; and
• launching a Commodity Supply Chain Table.

This week Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz announced that our Government is taking further action on early recommendations presented by members of the Crop Logistics Working Group (CLWG) to improve the competitiveness of the supply chain.

Immediate actions include pursuing enhancements to the Grain Monitoring Program to improve the frequency of reporting and providing an ongoing forum for representatives across the industry to discuss improvement throughout the supply chain.

Our Conservative Government will continue to work with all parts of the supply chain to help get farmers’ products to market quickly and efficiently.