Last week was the first ever National Grain Week hosted by Grain Growers of Canada.

Members of the organization from across the country met in Ottawa to interact with M.P.'s and Ministers April 17 to 19.

President of Grain Growers of Canada, Jeff Nielsen, says rail transportation was a hot topic.

"Naturally on the forefront of any grain producers right now is hopefully the speedy passage of Bill C-49 for the rail issues. We've hopefully averted a strike with CP Rail. We all know how the issues went with CN Rail over the winter and how the service was extremely poor with them, so definitely that was one of our key messages was the speedy passage of Bill C-49 with the amendments that were brought forward."

Nielsen says, amendments made to Bill C-49 were proposed by the grain sector, and the broad spectrum of people they met with understood the importance of these revisions to the legislation.

The Federal Ag Minister, Lawrence MacAulay, delivered greetings to the organization at their opening reception.

Nielsen says, his team was able to sit down with Minister MacAulay on Wednesday afternoon.

"He's naturally very supportive of the measures agriculture is doing and the growth we have, and we have an ambitious target the Government's set for us. $75 billion (of agri-food exports) by 2025. Any farmer will tell you, we grow great products we can increase that, yet we want a Government that stands behind us to make sure we can get our product to market and we have all the tools necessary."

Nielsen says, the dates for National Grain Week may change in the coming years depending on the parliamentary calendar and when farmers are in the fields.

 

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