Last year's crop will be on the move, says the federal government

The Federal Government is extending the railways' minimum grain hauling mandate, but has lightened the load.

CN and CP Rail will be required to move 200,000 tonnes of grain per week, up to 465,000 tonnes per week throughout the winter and up until March 28, 2015.

Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz says this will see the remainder of last year’s crop move through the system.

"Everybody wants to see grain continue to move," he said. "We don't want to see it sitting in the fields under plastic, and we don't want to see it in bins forever either. There's a growing market out there and lots of demand, and there's boats sitting in Vancouver waiting to load, and that's a good thing, that means Canadian farmers are going to get paid again... this is going to be, from my perspective, more of a value year than a volume year.

Failure to comply with the new regulations could result in a $100,000 per week penalty, and the railways will also be required to submit detailed winter contingency plans to the government.

The requirements were first introduced in March 2014 to increase the movement of a record amount of grain that had been left sitting in bins because of a railway transportation bottleneck.

CM Rail is saying that instead of re-imposing the minimum requirements, the government should have focused on encouraging greater supply chain collaboration.