Newly established Commodity Supply Chain Table holds first meeting
OTTAWA, June 26, 2014 /CNW/ - The Honourable Lisa Raitt, Minister of Transport, today spoke of the importance of collaboration in a speech to the inaugural meeting of the Commodity Supply Chain Table (CSCT). Minister Raitt said such collaboration across the rail supply chain would help improve the efficiency, effectiveness and reliability of the rail-based supply chain for bulk commodities.
Minister Raitt emphasized the importance of bringing key players together to identify issues and explore a variety of potential solutions to the challenges facing Canada's rail-based supply chain. She noted that safe and efficient rail transportation in Canada is vitally important to the economic future of Canada, and that collaboration and a consensus-based approach are essential to the success of the whole system.
Membership of the CSCT consists of representatives of agricultural, forestry, chemical and petroleum products, as well as railways, ports, grain elevators and ship-owners. The group will meet twice a year.
The creation of the table, combined with the accelerated review of the Canada Transportation Act, announced yesterday, will provide important opportunities to continue to assess how rail transportation can be improved. The CSCT's goals will be to promote exchanges on logistical issues affecting supply chains in Canada for bulk commodities that are shipped by rail, to provide a forum for service providers and shippers in these supply chains to share overall trends and expected future traffic in commodity movements, to explore and assess potential solutions to these issues, and to develop supply chain performance metrics to increase the visibility of the overall system performance.
Quick Facts
In 2012, Canadian railways carried a total of 336.5M tonnes of freight, and employed 33,646 people.
Quote
"The Commodity Supply Chain Table provides a forum for shippers, railways, ports, terminals, and other partners to work together on ways to improve the performance of the rail-based supply chain. I am truly delighted that this table is up and running."
The Honourable Lisa Raitt
Minister of Transport
Related Products
Review of Canada Transportation Act
Fair Rail for Grain Farmers Act
Government's Response to the Rail Freight Service Review
Associated Link
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SOURCE: Transport Canada
Jana Régimbal, Press Secretary, Office of the Honourable Lisa Raitt, Minister of Transport, Ottawa, 613-991-0700; Media Relations, Transport Canada, Ottawa, 613-993-0055
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