22 May 2010

CP Wants Clarity from Feds, Provinces

Fred Green.

Calgary Alberta - Ottawa and the provinces need to do a better job of co-ordinating policy on issues ranging from the environment to tax reform, Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd.'s top executive said Friday.
 
Canadian Pacific representatives have spent a lot of time in Ottawa, not to mention Washington, making the case for removing "artificial barriers in the form of regulation or legislation," Fred Green told shareholders Friday at the firm's annual general meeting.
 
"To the extent that we can find national policies, or arguably national policies tied to our counterparts in the States, that's a whole lot better than it is to have these regional policies emerging," Green later told reporters.
 
The government has done a good job on rules for pension solvency deficit funding and fostering stronger trade relations with Asian economies.
 
But Canadian Pacific would like to see Ottawa and the provinces co-operate more on environmental, securities, and tax policy.
 
"Federal and provincial governments need to work effectively together to ensure there is clarity and consistency on environmental issues, cap and trade, securities legislation, and tax reform," Green told shareholders.
 
"Having federal and provincial governments issuing independent and inconsistent policies is harmful to Canada's productivity and the entire supply chain. We will continue to advocate the need to harmonize on policies like GHG emissions and biofuel standards."
 
Railways are often considered a bellwether for the health of the wider economy. The volume of goods, anything from grains to coal to cars, Canadian Pacific ships across the continent offers clues about which industries are doing well, and which are lagging.
 
Anything that moves to Asia through the Port of Vancouver, like metallurgical coal and fertilizer, has been doing well recently, Green told reporters. But he said he's still wary of how steady the recovery will be.
 
"Based on what you've seen in the stock market, the European crisis, it's the unpredictability that I worry about," he said.
 
"The underlying domestic economy is pretty much what I thought it would be. Housing starts have not improved dramatically. Automobile sales have not improved dramatically, certainly relative to historical levels."
 
Lauren Krugel.