The bridge severed the only rail link in or out of Grand Prairie, causing backlogs for grain shippers. Read more.
for making excuses about its inability to meet all of the demand for grain hopper cars during one of the most anticipated harvests in recent memory.Photo by Christinne Muschi/Bloomberg files
David Przednowek, who heads CN’s grain unit, said the Grand Prairie line is one of two serving the broader Peace River region in northwestern Alberta. And the whole region represents about three million tonnes out of a total average annual crop of 75 million tonnes harvested in Western Canada, Przednowek said.
The farm that Sears runs, near Sexsmith, Alta., 15 kilometres or so north of Grand Prairie, just finished harvesting canola, wheat, barley and field peas. He’s got to pay bills for that harvest, and start buying fertilizer and other inputs for next year. But he hasn’t had any cash flow for months, because he sold the last of his previous crop back in June.