FRCC Upset With Tory Decision

SASKATOON - May 9/06 - SNS -- The Farmer Rail Car Coalition (FRCC) blasted the federal government;s decision to retain ownership of the government hopper fleet instead of selling it to a farmer coalition.

Sinclair Harrison, president of the Farmer Rail Car Coalition (FRCC), said the Conservative government "selected the railways preferred option." The federal government will retain ownership of the federal hopper car fleet, a new operating agreement will be negotiated with the railways, maintenance costs may be reduced, and railways will be responsible for replacing the hopper cars as the government cars are retired from service.

"This is a good deal for railways but not western farmers," said Harrison. "This deal perpetuates a system which has allowed the railways to over charge farmer hundreds of millions of dollars for maintenance that was never performed Poor maintenance of gates and hatches resulted in more than 10 million dollars of grain loss per year".

During the House of Commons Standing Committee on Transportation hearings on the sale of the hopper cars, both railways asked the federal government to keep the hopper cars, renegotiate the lease arrangements to give more concessions to the railways and leave the replacement of the hopper cars to the discretion of the railways. "This is essentially what the federal government announced."

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