Federal Transport Minister Marc Garneau and Agriculture Minister Lawrence MacAulay met with 19 representatives from a wide variety of farm groups Thursday in Saskatoon.

It was in a roundtable format behind closed doors. 

Minister Garneau wrapped things up, saying it was a very useful meeting.

"We heard very clearly from the different people that were in the room. What are their concerns? What are their hopes and asperations with respect to an industry that is growing. Because the grain industry is going to continue to grow in the years to come and this is important for Canada. It was very important for us to hear them as part of our consultation process."

Garneau says ultimately their aim is to have the most efficient transportation system possible so we can move grain, potash, and lumber efficiently out to ports or south to the United States.

Prior to the roundtable, the two federal ministers met with Manitoba and Saskatchewan ministers.

Meanwhile, the executive director for the Western Grain Elevator Association (WGEA) is pleased that farmers finally got a meeting with Federal Transportation Minister Marc Garneau.

The Minister has been meeting with industry to get feedback on suggestions for change in the Canadian Transportation Act Review Report.

Wade Sobkowich says they met with the Minister back in July and talks about some of the changes they would like to see. Sobkowich said, “We're thinking it’s going to end up, once all the final numbers are in, somewhere in the neighborhood of 75 - 80 million tons Western Canada. Could be the second largest on record and so a big crop. So far railway performance has been better than we’ve seen in previous years and better than what we saw in 2013/14 we attribute most of that to lower shipping in other industries.”

Transportation Minister Marc Garneau tabled the Canada Transportation Act Review Report in Parliament in February of this year; the review itself ran from June 25th, 2014 to December 21, 2015.