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The province will be selling its 900 grain cars and ending the Saskatchewan Grain Car Corporation (SGCC).

During its budget announcement on Wednesday, the Saskatchewan government said the Crown corporation would be winding down.

READ MORE: Saskatchewan Budget 2017: sales tax increasing to deal with $685M deficit

The SGCC is a provincial Treasury Board Crown Corporation that manages the government’s fleet of railway hopper cars. The cars are leased for the movement of western grain.

David Marit, the minister responsible for the Saskatchewan Grain Car Corporation, said the time is right for the government to leave the business.

“By selling the fleet now, the cars will still move Saskatchewan grain. At the same time the province will get a higher return by selling the cars while they still have significant useful service life left.

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Saskatchewan’s 13 commercial shortline railways will be given the first chance to purchase the cars.

The province said the Association of American Railroads says rail cars can move between railways for a maximum of 50 years. The SGCC cars have 14 years of service life left and the cost of replacing the original fleet of 1,000 cars is estimated to be $100 million.

Marit said the change in ownership and control of the cars will mean better movement of grain within the province.

“The railways will have the choice to use the fleet internally to support their own grain transportation services or lease the cars to shippers.”

The grain cars will be sold through a Request for Offer process. Submissions must be in by May 12 and the sale will be done over the summer.

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