As the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is in limbo between the agreement and its ratification, Keystone Agricultural Producers president Dan Mazier says the government needs to figure Canada's rail transportation problems.

"We can have all these trade agreements, we can do all these wonderful things, but how are we going to get the product out to our customers and on time?" he says. "Once the Canadian Transportation Agency review is done, the government — whoever is in on Oct. 19 — needs to take a long look... at what needs to be done to our transportation industry."

Mazier says it's going to take time to fix Canada's rail transportation system, but it's particularly important to Manitoba, as we're a land-locked province.

"We've got Thunder Bay, but going west — where all these products are all going to go with the Trans-Pacific Partnership — we need that ability to get the system going," he says.

Looking at the deal overall, however, he says trade is usually good for agriculture in Manitoba, but expresses some concern for supply management. He understands the deal is a balancing act, and while he thinks it's good to see the government create support programs for supply-managed producers affected by the deal, he says it's hard to give up part of a system that works so well.

"It's a tough one," Mazier says. "The supply management system is not costing the taxpayer any money, it's costing the consumer. It's safe, it's reliable, it's from Canada, and I don't know why we would trade that away... But if it's giving us access to other commodities, like pork or canola, that's huge for those industries, too."

Groups like the Canadian Canola Growers Association say not only will the TPP create more export opportunities, it will create more added-value opportunities in Canada. Mazier says bottom line, the deal will create demand. And while Manitoba, specifically, has facilities to process pork and crush canola, he thinks it will be interesting to see what happens with beef.

"We don't really have the ability to process our beef in Manitoba, and it'll be interesting to see what that does to our market in Manitoba," Mazier says. "We're land-locked. If it creates more of a need off-shore, and all of a sudden North America needs more beef to be kept and processed here, that might create greater demand in North America, but we've a long way to go to into that processing market for beef."

The TPP agreement concluded last Monday among the 12 Pacific Rim countries, including Japan, Canada, the United States, and Australia, although it still needs to be ratified by Canadian Parliament.