OTTAWA — A “perfect storm” of record harvests, cold winter weather, shorter trains, and railways’ preference for shipping oil instead of heavy grain loads has created a “crisis” that threatens Canada’s food markets here and abroad, says Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall.

Wall said there are 50 ships sitting empty off Vancouver waiting for grain bursting out of silos across the prairies, and mills that are running low on grains and cereals.

General Mills will run out of oats to produce Cheerios cereal in 15 to 20 days, he said.

In a wide-ranging speech Friday, Wall delivered a hard-hitting call to Canadians, opposition parties and the federal government to do more to ensure Canadian grain and oil products get to market by building more pipelines, north-south and east-west, and providing more railway support for farmers.

He said Canada should aspire to be a food and energy “superpower.”

“We ought to talk like it and we ought to act like it,” said Wall to a conference of small-c conservatives organized by the Manning Centre.

Instead, Wall deplored the fact that Canadian grain and oil products needed by developing Asian economies are not getting to market on time.

Japan has switched to buying wheat from the U.S. and longtime customers of Canadian grain such as Algeria have not made their usual annual purchases because “they just don’t think they can ship it.”

He called for federal government intervention, suggesting either emergency legislation or the use of existing federal regulatory power to ease grain revenue caps and break the logjam created by the “duopoly” of CP and CN rail companies. Wall acknowledged it was unusual for a conservative to intervene in markets, but he insisted it is a national crisis.

“What’s at stake is the brand for our country in terms of reliability,” said Wall.

In response to Wall’s speech, the office of Saskatchewan Liberal MP Ralph Goodale pointed out that last year the federal government rejected amendments to railway legislation that would have addressed some of the grain producers' problems.

“No one in this system can stand up and fight for producers’ rights. And that’s exactly how Stephen Harper designed it,” Goodale wrote in an email to the Star.

In his speech, Wall said a longer-term solution is getting oil off the rail lines and into pipelines to allow grain to move more freely by rail.

And to win approval for the pipelines, Wall said the federal government should give the U.S. administration of President Barack Obama “more elbow room” to offer approval of the Keystone XL project by making a stronger case for Canada’s environmental record. He said it isn’t perfect, but is far superior to others around the world.

Wall told reporters that long-delayed regulations to cap emissions in the oil and gas sector “would be a signal that would help.”

But Wall tempered some of his criticism by saying he agreed with Harper that Canadian regulations should be “harmonized” with the Americans, and not set out tougher requirements on Canadian industry that would put Canadian producers at a competitive disadvantage.

Although Saskatchewan has no commercial oilsands development, Wall said it is the national interest for all government leaders and opposition to support Keystone’s construction, and he slammed NDP Leader Tom Mulcair for arguing against Canada’s interest in the U.S.

He said Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau’s support for Keystone was welcome, but added it is contradictory for Trudeau to criticize the Northern Gateway pipeline to B.C.’s coast for environmental reasons, saying it hurt Canada’s case to Obama.

Wall said Ottawa should tout the fact that about 80 pipelines already carry Canadian oil from the north to U.S. markets “right under the nose of (actress and Keystone opponent) Darryl Hannah.”

The speech, at once self-deprecating and yet unapologetically nationalistic, called for a “shift in attitude” among Canadians, saying they should recognize and be proud of the country’s economic and resource sector strengths.

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“Stop being afraid of talking about what those strengths are.”

He used video clips to mock author Margaret Atwood’s suggestion it was somehow too brash for Canadians to declare they would “own the podium.” He contrasted that with clips of gold-medal winning Canadian Olympians. He also mocked Martin Sheen and Neil Young as “advisers” to the Obama administration on the environment.

Wall said Canada could, with fiscal discipline and a “competitive” tax system, stand atop the world in food and energy markets.