Railways will pay WGRF after exceeding their maximum grain revenue entitlements

Jan 02, 2024

The Western Grains Research Foundation (WGRF) will once again see a substantial cash injection from the railways as part of their maximum grain revenue entitlements overage.

The Canada Transportation Agency has determined that grain-related revenue for both CN Rail and CPKC exceeded their allowable entitlements.

CN’s grain revenue of $1,079,522,039 was $3,457,939 above its entitlement of $1,076,064,100.

CPKC’s grain revenue of $943,886,400 was $3,369,407 above its entitlement of $940,516,993.

Under the Canada Transportation Act, CN and CPKC now have 30 days to pay the WGRF the overage ( $7.1 million ) plus a five percent penalty.

Stats show that for the 2022-23 crop year the railways saw a 60 per cent increase in the volume of grain moved for a total of 45 million metric tonnes, that's mainly due to improved growing conditions as compared to the 28.4 million moved in 2021-22 when the Western Canadian grain crop was impacted by the drought.

The Canada Transportation Act requires the CTA to determine each railways annual MRE (maximum revenue entitlement) and whether each entitlement has been exceeded.

The revenue entitlement is described as a form of economic regulation that enables CN and CPKC to set their rates for services, provided the total amount of revenue collected from their shipments of Western grain remains below the ceiling set by the CTA.

Source : Pembinavalley online

Video: Spring 2026 weather outlook for Wisconsin; What an early-arriving El Niño could mean

Northeast Wisconsin is a small corner of the world, but our weather is still affected by what happens across the globe.

That includes in the equatorial Pacific, where changes between El Niño and La Niña play a role in the weather here -- and boy, have there been some abrupt changes as of late.

El Niño and La Niña are the two phases of what is collectively known as the El Niño Southern Oscillation, or ENSO for short. These are the swings back and forth from unusually warm to unusually cold sea surface temperatures in the Pacific Ocean along the equator.

Since this past September, we have been in a weak La Niña, which means water temperatures near the Eastern Pacific equator have been cooler than usual. That's where we're at right now.

Even last fall, the long-term outlook suggested a return to neutral conditions by spring and potentially El Niño conditions by summer.

But there are some signs this may be happening faster than usual, which could accelerate the onset of El Niño.

Over the last few weeks, unusually strong bursts of westerly winds farther west in the Pacific -- where sea surface temperatures are warmer than average -- have been observed. There is a chance that this could accelerate the warming of those eastern Pacific waters and potentially push us into El Niño sooner than usual.

If we do enter El Nino by spring -- which we'll define as the period of March, April and May -- there are some long-term correlations with our weather here in Northeast Wisconsin.

Looking at a map of anomalously warm weather, most of the upper Great Lakes doesn't show a strong correlation, but in general, the northern tiers of the United States do tend to lean to that direction.

The stronger correlation is with precipitation. El Niño conditions in spring have historically come with a higher risk of very dry weather over that time frame, so this will definitely be a transition we'll have to watch closely as we move out of winter.