The Canadian government will impose stiff penalties on railways if minimum grain shipments are not met. Canadian National Railway Co. and the Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd must ship a minimum of 500,000 metric tons of grain or 5,500 railcars per week effective immediately. If the railways fail to meet the minimum shipping requirements the government will fine them C$100,000 (US$90,171) per day that they are not in compliance. Currently the two railways combined are shipping 2,500 railcars per week. This rate is set to increase by 500 cars per week until the minimum is reached. Because of the ongoing logistic bottlenecks as a result of last year’s bumper crops Canadian farmers have orders to ship 4.6 million tons of oats, wheat, barley, and canola oil that have gone unshipped.
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