(Winnipeg) March 18, 2011 – Pulse Canada and the Canadian Special Crops Association strongly support the
Government of Canada’s response today to the Rail Freight Service Review report.
“This the right move, at the right time” said Anthony Kulbacki, President of the Canadian Special Crops
Association (CSCA), and CFO of Walker Seeds Ltd. “This is an important step in improving transportation
service for Canada’s pulse and special crops trade.”
“We’re very pleased to see that the government is acting on our recommendation to mandate Service Level
Agreements (SLAs) and a process to establish fair and balanced terms. SLA’s will inject predictability and
accountability into the supply chain. Predictability will drive down costs and improve our reputation in markets
around the world” says Greg Cherewyk, Executive Director of Pulse Canada/CSCA.
“It is important that government has agreed to keep the spot light on the Canadian transportation system. The
establishment of a supply chain working group to ‘measure what matters’ is going to ensure that we all focus
our efforts on improving system performance. Independent measurement of performance was a cornerstone
of the Review and it must remain a top priority as we transition into the solutions phase” says David Nobbs,
Chair of Pulse Canada.
The performance measurement system must deliver timely, detailed, and independently verifiable results.
The working group must set out performance measurements with clear requirements for improvement in
reporting, and specific targets and timelines should be established for all players to improve their
performance.
Measuring performance, compelling stakeholders to negotiate SLAs and providing a quick and inexpensive
way to arrive at agreements goes a long way to creating the ‘enabling environment’ for competitive Canadian
businesses. “The government’s solution does not put them at the table but ensures that commercial
negotiations will result in fair and balanced service agreements” says Kulbacki. “We will all have obligations,
and we need to achieve some balance to ramifications for non-performance.”
“A six month timeline on defining base terms and conditions for service level agreements means we need to
begin immediately. Now is the time to get to work to build on all of the efforts to date to improve to system
performance and sustain them into the future” said Nobbs.
Pulse Canada is the national association representing growers, traders and processors of Canadian pulse crops
(peas, beans, lentils and chickpeas).
The Canadian Special Crops Association (CSCA) represents companies involved in the merchandising of Canadian
pulse and special crops, including bean, chickpea, lentil, pea, canary seed, buckwheat, sunflower seed and
mustard seed.