A list of eight recommendations from the Crop Logistics Working Group (CLWG) is hope for Canadian grain transportation to move a little farther down the line.

This committee was made up of 18 agricultural organizations, representing producers, processors, and customers.

"The fact that these 18 organizations came together and were able to come to a consensus and be able to consolidate all of these recommendations into a document, is probably the most important thing," says Murdoch MacKay, the chair of the CLWG. He says the committee worked well and worked hard to create this list.

Some of the recommendations include transparency in the rail market and enhanced powers of the Canadian Transportation Agency. MacKay also spoke about the recommendation for increased protection for producer car and small shippers.

"There's a real focus on large unit trains, and large grain companies, and so there are more and more small shippers that are involved in some products," he says. "There's also producer cars and short-line railways, and we think that it's important there be protection for these smaller shippers and producer car shippers because they have commercial contracts and commercial agreements with buyers, and we need to ensure they're treated equally."

This is CLWG's third and final mandate, and it will be submitted to the Canada Transportation Act review panel.