Planned Canadian Grain Commission incursion into Ontario leaves industry here wondering

Wednesday, December 10, 2014

by SUSAN MANN

An Ontario grain grower official is looking for more information about proposed changes to Canada’s grain industry legislation, particularly the requirement enabling Canadian Grain Commission officials to obtain samples from facilities that it doesn’t license.

Barry Senft, CEO of Grain Farmers of Ontario, says that would include facilities in Ontario that are currently licensed by Agricorp. “We’d want to know more exactly what that is about.”

Agricorp licenses 313 elevators in Ontario, says Jim Zavitz, its chief grain inspector.

Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada and the Canadian Grain Commission introduced proposed legislation in Ottawa Tuesday, aimed at modernizing the country’s grain industry bill, also known as bill C-48.

Commission chief operating officer Gordon Miles says during a telephone technical briefing the bill will enhance producer protection, enhance grain quality and safety assurance and further modernize the Canada Grain Act.

The proposed amendments will enhance producer protection by giving farmers access to the commission’s binding determination of grade and dockage for their grain deliveries to commission-licensed process elevators, grain dealers and container-loading elevators. That’s in addition to the binding determination being already available for deliveries made to primary and terminal elevators.  

“This change would provide consistency in producer treatment across the licensed grain handling system,” he says.

Primary elevators receive grain directly from growers for storage or forwarding or both while process elevators receive and store grain for manufacturing or processing into other products, according to the commission’s website.

The proposed bill would enable the commission to have the authority to establish and administer a producer compensation fund to be “funded by commission-licensee contributions,” Miles says, noting if a licensed buyer fails to pay for grain, money in the fund would be distributed to eligible producers. Before this change is implemented, the commission plans to hold consultations. Regulations also need to be amended before the fund can be implemented.

Senft says this proposal doesn’t apply to Ontario producers, who already have the Ontario Grain Financial Protection program that protects them from non-paying buyers when selling grains and oilseeds to licensed dealers or storing crops at licensed elevators.

Ontario farmers won’t have to participate in the commission established producer compensation fund, he adds.

Miles says in the area of enhancing grain quality and safety assurance, the federal bill proposes the creation of a new class of commission license called container-loading elevators. “Licensing these container loading facilities would allow the commission to respond effectively to quality complaints, license the grain industry consistently and improve statistical reporting,” he says.

Senft says they’re also wondering what has changed to make the requirement for licensing container-loading elevators necessary. “We need to understand more why they’re feeling that it needs to be in regulation or legislation.”

Commission communications coordinator Louise Worster says by email they don’t have information on the number of container loading facilities in Ontario but the commission is planning to do an assessment “to identify facilities that would meet the new definition of a container loading facility.”

Miles says existing but unenforced provisions of current legislation that enables the commission to license primary and process elevators in eastern Canada would be repealed. But “for grain safety purposes in particular, the commission would be given authority to require samples of grain from elevators in eastern Canada, including unlicensed facilities. This would create a consistent approach to grain safety across the country and assist with market access issues,” he explains.

Consultations would be held before the changes are implemented, Miles says.

Terminal elevators receive grain on or after official inspection and weighing and clean, store and treat grain before moving it forward, the commission’s website says. The commission licenses 15 terminal elevators in Ontario located in Goderich, Hamilton, Windsor, Sarnia, Owen Sound, Prescott and Thunder Bay. These elevators would continue to be licensed by the commission once the federal legislative changes are implemented.

 Senft says “the Canada Grain Act was never enacted in Eastern Canada. They’ve got a significant authority in Western Canada whereas they don’t in Eastern Canada or Ontario.”

The majority of Ontario’s inland grain buying companies are licensed through Agricorp, he says. But the commission’s authority will now be expanded more into Ontario through the proposal enabling the commission to obtain grain samples from facilities not licensed by it, Senft adds.

Miles says in the area of modernizing the Canada Grain Act, the commission’s mandate would be clarified “so that it is clear the organization serves the interests of producers and all Canadians.”  

The federal government began updating the Canada Grain Act in 2012 as part of the Jobs and Growth Act and streamlined the commission’s operations while reducing costs to the grain sector, the government’s Dec. 9 press release says. BF