Ottawa orders railways to move grain each week

The federal government says it will introduce anorder-in-council forcing railways to move a minimum amount of graineach week.

Transport Minister Lisa Raitt says that minimum will be set at500,000 tonnes, which works out to 5,500 grain cars each forCanadian National and Canadian Pacific.

She says there will be penalties of up to $100,000 a day if CPand CN don't meet the requirement.

The government is giving the railways four weeks to ramp up tothe minimum level.

A record harvest coupled with a transportation bottleneck hasleft grain sitting in bins across the Prairies. Last year'sharvestwas up by about 20 million tonnes.

"Our government is well aware of the challenge facing farmersacross Western Canada. This is a very serious situation,"Raittsaid at a news conference on Friday in Winnipeg.

Canada is at risk of losing its reputation around the world as adependable supplier of grain if the backlog isn'taddressed, sheadded.

"We have to demonstrate that Canada can maintain an efficienttransportation system which is capable of moving ourgrain tomarket," she said.

"This is an issue of great significance and we have to addressit in a timely manner."

Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz, who was also at the newsconference, said railway companies have "dropped the ball."

CNandCPdid not get a heads-up about the order,Raittsaid.