Modernization of transportation law would improve rail service: Garneau
EDMONTON – Transport Minister Marc Garneau rolled into Alberta on Thursday to promote his bill that aims to help modernize Canada’s freight rail industry.
After getting his photograph taken near a grain elevator, Garneau told an Edmonton business luncheon that people cannot take for granted an industry that moves $280 billion worth of trade goods every year and is a backbone of the economy.
Garneau said the Transportation Modernization Act introduced this week would make the rail network more reliable, more competitive and better able to handle increased traffic. That would include greater movement of grain from a projected increase in crop production in coming years.
He noted the rail traffic bottleneck in Western Canada of 2013-14 when millions of tonnes of grain was left stranded in bins and on farm fields.