By Jack Liu
Communications Intern, Alberta Canola
As the new communications intern at Alberta Canola, the Team Alberta Crops breakfast was my first time at an agriculture policy event. I come from an urban background with limited exposure to farming. Insights from presenters Milt Poirier, from QGI Consulting, and Neil Blue, a provincial Crop Market Analyst with Alberta Agriculture and Irrigation, fundamentally changed my understanding of the agricultural industry.
I no longer see Canadian agriculture as simply the production of farm products. Instead, I now view farming in the context of globally interconnected systems. These systems encompass the inputs that farmers rely on, the production processes, and the networks of processing and logistics. All of these systems are further shaped by external forces, including national and provincial policies, international trade rules, climate patterns, and technological innovations.
Global Competition and Climate Challenge
From Neil Blue’s talk, I learned that agriculture is a competitive global industry where agricultural regions around the world face growing competition for key markets. It was interesting to hear that countries with a lot of fertile soil aren’t necessarily the top producers. For example, despite vast fertile land, the Soviet Union relied heavily on Canadian grain imports in the 1970s due to inefficiencies in its farming system. Australia offered another example, with its grain production swinging sharply from year to year due to extreme climate exposure, rainfall variability, El Niño and La Niña cycles, and severe weather events. These examples highlighted the impact of variables such as political systems and climate on a country’s overall agricultural industry success; factors that I previously underestimated.
Canadian Farmers’ Reliance on Rail
Canada produces more agricultural products than its population can consume, so it relies heavily on exports. The rail system is critical because it is the primary mode of transportation for agricultural products to Canadian ports for export to global markets. I didn’t realize how important railways were to Canada’s agriculture industry before the event. Milt Poirier, a veteran of the CN Railway, focused his discussion on the significant rail delays in grain shipments that occurred in 2024 and 2025. He explained that some of the contributing factors causing the delays were weather-related, such as frigid temperatures, which necessitated CN to restrict train lengths for safety reasons.
Another contributing factor that he mentioned was that most grain terminals cannot load vessels when it is raining. When port terminals are unable to empty their storage silos into ships for export the ports can’t accommodate any additional railcars. Consequently, trains have to wait inland sometimes for weeks. When trains wait, these delays ripple through the entire rail system and reduce overall rail capacity.
These disruptions can delay export schedules, trigger contractual penalties, restrict farmers’ cash flow during harvest, and undermine Canada’s reputation as a reliable supplier. As Poirier noted, global customers value reliability as much as cost. Therefore, reliable rail transport is a vital linchpin that supports the overall competitiveness of Canadian agriculture.
Event attendees proposed solutions such as hiring more rail yard staff or adding port automation, but Poirier pointed to a deeper root cause: limited competition in the rail industry. With CN and CPKC controlling nearly all long-haul freight movement in Canada, shippers have no alternatives. As a result, rail companies have little incentive to invest billions in large-scale performance improvements that may take decades to pay off. Instead, they tend to focus on shorter-term, incremental upgrades. This insight reinforced the importance of looking beyond surface-level fixes to understand the incentives and constraints that shape these complex systems.
New Supply Chain Visibility
Having said that, according to Mr. Poirier, the railroads understand the impacts of poor supply chain execution on grain industry stakeholders and are investing in capabilities that provide them with visibility into all segments of the supply chain in near real-time. Rather than tracking only railcar counts, they will soon be able to monitor grain movement at each stage, enabling them to identify bottlenecks, analyze causes, and make data-driven investment decisions. This shift toward transparency may enable earlier intervention and prevent minor delays from escalating into system-wide disruptions.
The Team Alberta Crops breakfast provided me with a more holistic understanding of the state of Canadian agriculture, its connection to the global agricultural market, and how external industries and forces, including logistics systems, trade policies, climate and new technological developments, have a profound effect on the year-end financials of farmers. I am surprised by the sheer number of variables that a farmer must consider when growing food, such as economic, logistical, agronomic, and environmental factors. These insights have changed how I view farmers, not simply as people who grow food, but as business owners navigating a complex, globalized industry.