The Crow Rate, or Crowsnest Freight Rate, was a rail transportation subsidy benefiting farmers on the Canadian Prairies and manufacturers in Central Canada by rate requirements imposed on the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) by the Government of Canada in exchange for financing and other benefits.
In the late 19th century, mineral strikes in southeastern BC near Nelson, Ainsworth, Rossland, Kaslo, Kimberley and Moyie inspired American rail interests to push lines northward, to rail out ore and to provide machinery and supplies needed for the development of local smelters. Both the Canadian government and the CPR wanted an all-Canadian rail line to forestall this American access and to reassert Canadian sovereignty in the area. A rail line was planned from Lethbridge, Alberta to Kootenay Landing near Nelson, British Columbia through the Crowsnest Pass, which would also enable the development of coal deposits in the Pass and the Elk River valley, important both for mineral smelting operations and for the CPR's conversion of locomotives from wood to coal. [1]
The CPR needed government funding and concessions for the construction of this rail line, and the negotiated agreement between the CPR and the Canadian government was contained in the "Crowsnest Pass Agreement" dated September 6, 1897. Amongst other things, the CPR agreed to provide reduced rail rates for farmers' grain shipped east to the Great Lakes and for farm machinery shipped west from central Canada "forever".
The Crow Rate was suspended by the CPR during World War One and reinstated in 1922.
Although popular with farmers exporting grains, these reduced rates were not cost-effective for the railway and provided central Canadian manufacturers and grain ports with an unfair advantage. By the early 1980s, the government attempted to resolve the problems between the competing interests by altering the agreement. The Western Grain Transportation Act of 1983 allowed shipping rates to increase, but never more than 10% of the world price for grain. In addition, further cash payments were made by the government to the CPR.
With the election of the Liberal government of Jean Chrétien in 1993, the new government took steps to eliminate the subsidies altogether. This was implemented in 1995 through the Western Grain Transition Payment Program, which provided one-time payments to farmers to assist them in making the transition away from subsidized shipping.
The Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR), known as CP Rail between 1968 and 1996 and simply Canadian Pacific, is a historic Canadian Class I railway incorporated in 1881. The railway is owned by Canadian Pacific Railway Limited, which began operations as legal owner in a corporate restructuring in 2001.
BC Rail is a railway in the Canadian province of British Columbia.
Crowsnest Pass is a low mountain pass across the Continental Divide of the Canadian Rockies on the Alberta–British Columbia border.
A branch line is a secondary railway line which branches off a more important through route, usually a main line. A very short branch line may be called a spur line. David Blyth Hanna, the first president of the Canadian National Railway, said that although most branch lines cannot pay for themselves, they are even essential to make main lines pay.
The Southern Railway of Vancouver Island, previously the Esquimalt and Nanaimo Railway, is 234 kilometres (145 mi) in length, and is the only remaining railway on Vancouver Island, after the formal closure of the Englewood Railway in November 2017. The Southern Railway's line runs from Victoria to Courtenay, with a branch line from Parksville to Port Alberni. In 2006, the Island Corridor Foundation acquired the railway's ownership from the Canadian Pacific Railway and RailAmerica.
The Kaslo and Slocan Railway was a 3 ft narrow-gauge railway between Kaslo, Slocan, and the mining community of Sandon in the Kootenay region of British Columbia between 1895 and 1955 totalling about 53 km (33 mi) of track. It was operated originally by the Great Northern Railway and later by the Canadian Pacific Railway.
The Cape Breton and Central Nova Scotia Railway is a short line railway operating in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia. CBNS operates of main line and associated spurs between Truro in the central part of the province to Point Tupper on Cape Breton Island.
Thomas George Shaughnessy, 1st Baron Shaughnessy was an American-Canadian railway administrator who rose from modest beginnings as a clerk and bookkeeper for the Milwaukee and St. Paul Railroad to become the president of the Canadian Pacific Railway, serving in that capacity from 1899 to 1918. In recognition of his stewardship of the CPR and its contributions to the war effort during the Great War, Shaughnessy was elevated to the Peerage of the United Kingdom on 1 January 1916 as Baron Shaughnessy, of the City of Montreal in the Dominion of Canada and of Ashford in the County of Limerick.
Robert Angus Bandeen was a Canadian businessman and former President and Chief Executive Officer of Canadian National Railways.
The grain trade refers to the local and international trade in cereals and other food grains such as wheat, maize, and rice.
The Indiana Rail Road is a United States Class II railroad, originally operating over former Illinois Central Railroad trackage from Newton, Illinois, to Indianapolis, Indiana, a distance of 155 miles (249 km). This line, now known as the Indiana Rail Road's Indianapolis Subdivision, comprises most of the former IC line from Indianapolis to Effingham, Illinois; Illinois Central successor Canadian National Railway retains the portion from Newton to Effingham. INRD also owns a former Milwaukee Road line from Terre Haute, Indiana, to Burns City, Indiana, with trackage rights extending to Chicago, Illinois. INRD serves Louisville, Kentucky, and the Port of Indiana on the Ohio River at Jeffersonville, Indiana, through a haulage agreement with the Louisville & Indiana Railroad (LIRC).
The North Western Coal and Navigation Company, also known as Alberta Railway and Coal Company or Alberta Railway and Irrigation Company, was a coal mining company formed in London, England in 1882 by Sir Alexander Tilloch Galt, one of Canada's Fathers of Confederation. As part of his vision for Canada, Galt was committed to finding industries that would bring settlers to the District of Alberta of the Northwest Territories. The company was founded to create a coal mining industry that could bring settlers to the Northwest Territories. It was based in Lethbridge, Alberta, with his son Elliott Torrance Galt, managing day-to-day operations. The company's superintendent was William Stafford. Money for this company came from a consortium of investors from Canada, England, and the United States.
OmniTRAX, Inc. is a transportation and transportation infrastructure holding company based in Denver, Colorado, in the United States. It primarily owns and operates railroads, with a network of 21 regional and shortline railroads in 12 U.S. states and three Canadian provinces. It is one of the largest privately owned railroad companies in the United States. The firm also invests in, develops, and operates ports, multimodal transportation terminals, and industrial parks.
The Moyie is a paddle steamer sternwheeler that worked on Kootenay Lake in British Columbia, Canada from 1898 until 1957.
The Columbia and Western Railway (C&W) was a historic, and initially narrow gauge, railway in southern British Columbia.
The Canadian Pacific Railway is a Canadian Class I railway that stretches from Montreal, Quebec, to Vancouver, British Columbia. The British Columbia (BC) portion of the railway was constructed between 1881 and 1885, fulfilling a promise extended to BC when it entered Confederation in 1871. For decades, it was the only practical means of long–distance passenger transport in Canada.
The Western Grain Transportation Act was a 1983 Canadian federal statute under which the formula for calculating a transport subsidy was modified. The subsidy, informally called the Crow Rate, Crow benefit or Crow subsidy, had been provided since 1897 by the Government of Canada to assist the rail transportation of specified grains and grain products to specified destinations within Canada for export. Since the producer paid only a portion of the freight rate, the Act had the effect of increasing the prices received by grain producers and paid by livestock producers on the prairies. The subsidy encouraged the movement of grain east and west to export shipping terminals.
The Hudson Bay Railway (HBR) is a historic rail line in Manitoba, Canada to the shore of Hudson Bay. The venture began as a line between Winnipeg in the south and Churchill, and/or Port Nelson, in the north. However, HBR came to describe the final section between The Pas and Churchill.
The Manitoba Grain Act was an act passed by the Federal government of Canada in 1900 to protect the interests of grain farmers against abuses by the grain storage and trading companies and the railways. Although well-intentioned the act was flawed, and a series of amendments were required before the more effective Canada Grain Act of 1912 was passed.