By: Terrie Welwood
Just as farmers around the area were heading into the fields to seed, many of them with land located along what’s known as the Bredenbury line, started receiving letter from CN rail.
In a nutshell, CN was stating that in order to comply with federal railway safety regulations, work would have to be done at any at-grade crossing leading into farmers fields. The work would be done by CN crews, the letter said and the farmers — as owners of the land – would be invoiced for the railway for that work. The same agreement that CN asked the landowners to sign within just a few weeks of receipt, stipulated that the landowners carry millions of dollars in liability insurance as well as, among other stipulations, pay an annual fee to the railway. Failure to respond, CN said would result in crossings being removed by the railway.
That was months ago. Now, just as farmers attempt to get their crops off their feilds, the letters have started showing up again.
For the last several months, Dan Mazier MP for Dauphin-Swan River- Neepawa has been in conversations with farmers in the area and discussing their possible next steps with the Canadian Transportation Agency (CTA).
“We’ve been back and forth with the Canadian Transportation Agency (CTA) about this and it’s time that the individual farmers and landowners who are still getting letters from CN about this to file a formal complaint with the CTA,” Mazier said in an interview this week.
While the Canadian Transport Agency has been fielding calls from landowners in the close to 3,000 at- grade crossings the railway is targeting, as far as Mazier is aware, no formal complaints have been registered at the Transportation Agency.
“There’s a process — it is a little more formal,” Mazier explained. “The CTA looks at the Transportation Act and how the railways are applying the Act and in this case, how the farmers and land owners are stuck in the middle of it.”
Mazier said while he was disappointed to see that the issue remains unresolved, in light of how this has been handled in the recent past, he’s not surprised.
“The railway is trying to put pressure on the farmers and trying to get these agreements signed before the landowners have all the information,” he said. “That just shows how out of touch CN is and I really cannot get over their lack of will to do it right.”
Good old fashioned respect and communication with the affected landowners along CN’s Bredenbury line — which runs from Gladstone in Manitoba west to about 40 kms into Saskatchewan — would have been the answer.
“When CN began thinking about sending these letters out, which quite likely was long before COVID-19 hit, and giving the farmers, the landowner and the councils the communication and respect they’re due, could quite easily have been done. And I’ve told them that.”
“And then, adding insult to injury — the first set of letters went out to farmers during seeding and now, we’re into harvest,” he added. “Where’s the decency and respect in that? Why are you doing it during a growing season.”
CN’s actions, Mazier said simply show that rail safety is not at the root of the matter.
“This has nothing to do with safety,” he said. “It has to do with the railway trying to slip one over on the landowners and the farmers so they get more control.”
As a MP representing rural Canadians who has had his fair share of dealing with railways as a president of Keystone Agriculture producers, he takes great exception with the heavy-handed way this issue has transpired.
“They haven’t even addressed the [Transportation] Act and how it is applied in a rural versus a semi urban area,” he said. “ They’re applying it all as if it’s all public access to busy highways. And that’s simply not the case.”
“The people at CN Central keep claiming that it’s all about safety and that every crossing has to have something done to it at the expense of the landowners,” Mazier added. “What they really want is a signature so they can say that you’ve signed off on it.”
This, he says is where formal complaints to the CTA come into play.
“How CN is going about this is just not right,” he said. “ They’re supposed to be consulting and say to people ‘here’s your options’ just like the Transportation Act reads.”
While affected farmers and landowners can consult the Canadian Transportation Agency website at https://www.otc-cta.gc.ca, the Manitoba MP is also suggesting that they contact his office via email at dan.mazier@parl.gc.ca. for the instructions.
“Email is the best way to communicate about this,” he said. “Our staff can certainly assist by providing advice, as well as the link to the CTA and the proper avenue to launch a formal complaint with the Trans- portation Agency,” he said.
Dan Mazier MP for Dauphin-Swan River-Neepawa urges farmers and landowners with concerns over ongoing dealings with at-grade crossings to