Railways to pay more than $5.7 million to Western Grains Research Foundation for exceeding revenue entitlement on small '21 crop

The Canadian Transportation Agency has issued its ruling on how CN and CP Rail’s profits from transporting Western Canadian grain compared with their regulated maximum grain revenue entitlements for the 2021-2022 crop year.

CN’s grain revenue last crop year was reported at $592,208,589 — $3,068,088 above its maximum entitlement, while CP’s grain revenue was $515,508,638 — $2,363,775 above its entitlement.

Both railways have 30 days to pay the amount by which they exceeded their entitlement, plus a five per cent penalty of $153,404 for CN and $118,189 for CP, to the farmer-directed Western Grains Research Foundation.

The CTA also noted a 46 per cent decline in the volume of grain moved by both railways compared with the previous crop year, mainly due to drought. In 2021, CN and CP shipped 28.4 million tonnes of grain, compared with a record 52.3 million the previous year.