Manitoba ministers to monitor measures aimed at easing grain bottleneck

WINNIPEG – The Manitoba government has tasked four cabinet ministers tomonitor federal measures aimed at easing a rail transportation bottleneck that has left piles of grain sitting in bins across the Prairies.

The province says the ministers are to make sure the province’sfarmers get access to rail cars as they become available.

The four are also to make sure farmers in flood-prone areas get their grain moved and to help others in finding alternate storage for grain that might be at risk.

Last week, the federal government said it was forcing Canada’s two main railway companies to double the amount of grain they ship in a week.

If CP and CN Rail don’t meet that target, they face fines of up to $100,000 a day.

Rail companies have said moving the biggest grain crop in history has been hampered by extreme cold.