A recent CWB study looked at the amount that railways were pocketing due to a termination of costing reviews and productivity-gain sharing in 1992. The study found that in the 1998 calendar year, the railways collected $224 million more than they would have had productivity-gain sharing continued.

In the wake of these revelations, the NFU reiterated its call for an immediate $5/tonne reduction in freight rates. Further, the NFU called on the government to require the railways to pay back $200 million of the money they overcharged in previous years.

The NFU pointed out similar railway windfalls to Willard Estey in the NFU's March 9, 1998 and September 8, 1998 briefs. In a July 2 news release, Sask. Board member Stewart Wells stated: "Estey knew that the railways are overcharging farmers and he chose to do nothing about it. He could have recommended a full costing review and immediate productivity-gain sharing but he chose not to. Estey's final report was - and the current Kroeger process is - exceedingly railway friendly."

Wells concluded: "People need to remember why the Estey Report was commissioned: poor rail performance. The Wheat Board proved, in its Canada Transportation Agency case, that the railways chose to allocate resources to moving other commodities while grain sat in elevators and farmers' bins. Far from being punished, however, the CWB's study shows that the railways are being lavishly rewarded. Further, if Estey and Kroeger have their way, those rewards will increase substantially. Farmers facing the worst income crisis since the 1930s cannot afford to provide increased rewards to insatiable railways".

CN and CP profits for 1998 exceeded the combined realized net income of the approximately 79,000 farm families in Manitoba and Saskatchewan.

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