Canadian Pacific Railway is planning on closing at least 10 producer car loading sites in Saskatchewan saying the sites are underused.

Sites that could begin closing by mid-September include Tompkins, Midale, Cupar, Markinch, Grand Coulee, Wilcox, Moosomin, Tisdale, Qu’Appelle and Duval.

APAS President Todd Lewis says they’ve sent a letter to the Federal Transport Minister requesting a moratorium on the closure of producer car loading sites until a full review of railway costs is completed.

"The notice they have to give is very minimal as far is just advertising in a local paper," he said. "It's really something that happened behind the scenes, that's why we've put out a press release to let people in the affect areas know that these sites are up for closure and to throw some comments in about it.     

If these closures proceed, the number of loading sites on CP rail lines in Saskatchewan will be reduced to 26, down from 79 in 2005.

Lewis says the Maximum Revenue Entitlement program formula is clearly out of date, while the numbers of sidings have decreased dramatically over the years; the railways are still being compensated for maintaining the same number of sidings that existed in 1992.