SASKATOON (Staff) – Tolls charged on grain moving through the St. Lawrence Seaway will remain unchanged next year.
It marks the second consecutive year that tolls have been frozen, leaving them at the 1993 level of about $1.34 a tonne for grain shipped through the inland waterway system.
The two agencies that jointly run the seaway – Canada’s St. Lawrence Seaway Authority and the U.S. St. Lawrence Seaway Development Corp. – both wanted a change in the toll structure for 1995, but they couldn’t agree on what that new level should be.
The Americans wanted a 10 percent decrease for the shipping season beginning April 1, while the Canadian side argued for a slight increase.
The international agreement governing the seaway states that if the two countries can’t agree on a change, the existing toll rates must remain in place.
Seaway authority spokesperson Andre Landry said that while a slight increase in tolls would have been preferable from his agency’s point of view, the freeze is a “satisfactory solution” to the impasse.
