Canada’s grain inspection agency wants to quadruple many of its fees, a price shock a major wheat grower’s association says farmers shouldn’t have to bear.
The Canadian Grain Commission held its first round of talks last month on a proposed hike to its fees. The commission is the federal group that inspects grain shipments prior to sale, issuing each a grade that affects its value.
Most of the commission’s fees have stayed the same since 1991, says spokesperson RĂ©mi Gosselin, and have not kept pace with inflation. Those fees covered just half of the group’s costs last year, compared to about 90 per cent in 1991. The federal government has had to cover the shortfall, which was about $54 million last year.
“We just cannot continue to rely on the fiscal framework in Ottawa to continue to provide our services,” Gosselin says. The commission has proposed raising some of its fees to allow for full cost recovery.
That would mean some big hikes, suggests the commission’s discussion paper on the changes. Outward inspection fees would have to double to $1.02 per tonne of grain from $0.51, while inward inspection would have to almost quadruple to $97.25 per car from $25.68. Analytical tests would cost $136.46 per sample under full-cost recovery, the paper notes, or about three times the current cost.
The commission has not settled on these rates, Gosselin emphasized. “One hundred per cent cost recovery is just the beginning of the discussion.”
Full-cost recovery would cost wheat farmers about $50 million a year, says Canadian Wheat Board chair Allen Oberg, or about $1.50 a tonne. The commission does need to charge more, he says, but should not put the full burden of those charges on farmers.
“Issues like food safety and quality, they’re issues all Canadians are concerned about,” Oberg says. “The government and the public at large should be responsible for some of those costs.”
The commission will publish a list of fee changes in March for comment, Gosselin says. Any changes would then need cabinet approval.
See grainscanada.gc.ca for details on the changes.
Record amounts of canola are piling up in Alberta, according to Statistics Canada, due in part to a shortage of trains.
Stats Canada published its regular report on field crop stocks last week. The report found that stocks of most grains, including barley, oats, wheat and rye, were down nationally as of Dec. 31 compared to the same date in 2009 due to lower crop production in the prairies, much of which was flooded during the summer.
The exception was Alberta, which had a record 2.7 million tonnes of canola stored at the end of last year — about 16 per cent more than 2009. Peas, wheat, and barley stores were also up.
Those canola numbers are the result of two huge back-to-back harvests, according to Ward Toma, general manager of the Alberta Canola Producers Commission. “They had a monster crop,” he says. “Everything outside of Peace River produced like nobody’s business.”
High volume plus winter and a resurgent economy add up to a shortage of rail cars to move that grain to port, Toma says, forcing many farmers to keep it in storage. Anyone who doesn’t take his or her crop to a crusher now has to wait for train space.
Sturgeon County farmers have been steadily shipping their stock over the winter, says local farmer Robert Tappauf, all while enjoying a steady rise in prices. Most farmers will plant even more canola next year, he predicts, at the expense of low-profit crops like feed barley.
The report can be found at www.statcan.gc.ca.
