Ottawa Ontario - After months of building tension over a seemingly intractable and economically devastating grain shipping backlog, finger pointing over the crisis broke into open hostility in Ottawa Wednesday.
 
In an appearance before the House agriculture committee, Canada's two national railways said the massive backlog wreaking havoc across the Prairies could largely be blamed on cold weather.
 
"Sustained cold below -25 degrees is a tipping point for railway operations," Canadian Pacific (CP) Vice President Michael Murphy said.
 
The extreme cold, caused by this winter's polar vortex that has hammered much of North America, has forced the railways to shorten trains, Canadian Pacific Director of Government Affairs Robert Taylor explained.
 
In warmer temperatures, CP could run trains as long as 14,000 feet.
 
Right now, because of the frigid temperatures, trains are half that length or around 7,000 feet.
 
But Conservative MP and former Saskatchewan farmer Randy Hoback argued in a tense tirade that capacity was also an issue.
 
"When I hear the arguments here that you don't need more locomotives, I disagree with you. Capacity is the issue here even when it's cold!" he said, his voice steadily rising.
 
"You're actually going to do severe damage to the economy of Western Canada if you don't smarten up!" the typically even-tempered MP almost shouted.
 
The railway representatives attempted to interject but ultimately waited quietly for Hoback to finish.
 
The cold weather isn't the only thing hampering grain movement, the railways said.
 
The sheer size of this year's crop, weighing at 95 million tonnes, is also causing un-forseen headaches.
 
"This is a record crop," CN assistant VP David Miller said in his testimony.
 
"Not only is it a record crop, but it's a crop few saw coming, even as the harvest was starting," he said.
 
Still, Miller said, while CN managed to move a record amount of grain in the fall, as of December things have definitely gotten off track.
 
CN has added 1,000 more cars to its fleet to deal with the backlog, Miller said.
 
The railway has also pulled extra cars up from the United States and ordered more locomotives.
 
As soon as the cold weather breaks, he added, CN will be trying to move as much grain and other backlogged commodities as fast as possible.
 
The company, Miller insisted, is "absolutely" taking the backlog and the soaring growth in Western Canada seriously.
 
While some members of the committee acknowledged the size of the crop could be problematic, few were buying the railway's complaints about the weather.
 
"As some of my colleagues have said before, we're in Canada. And, cold weather typically falls along with the name Canada right? It should be nothing new to us," Conservative MP Bob Zimmer said.
 
"So, what happens if this is a prolonged stint of cold weather? Are we going to have the same issues this time next year, and the next year following that?," he asked.
 
Nor was there much sympathy for CP.
 
In earlier testimony by the Alberta Federation of Agriculture, the committee was told CP had parked 400 locomotives and 2,700 grain cars and laid off 4,500 workers.
 
While Canadian Pacific skirted the cuts issue, they insisted the number of resources for grain had not changed.
 
"The fleet size we have is the same size we were dealing with in the fall, when we were moving record amounts of grain," Murphy said.
 
While this year's crop is huge, Hoback said poor rail service is not a new problem.
 
"When I was farming in 2000 to 2004, we always had issues of the trains not showing up on time," he said, "Then you'd blame the wheat board or somebody else, but the reality is you never had the capacity then."
 
Orders for grain cars continue to pour in across the prairies.
 
With outstanding requests topping an unprecedented 51,000 cars, farmers, grain companies. and politicians are furious.
 
Many farmers haven't been paid for this year's crop because the backlog has made it almost impossible to deliver grain.
 
That's led to cash-flow problems for some farmers, who haven't been able to pay off last year's loans.
 
And, with the backlog stretching into its fourth month time is running out.
 
Spring road bans will soon be put in place across the Prairies.
 
The annual restrictions set axle weight limits for vehicles moving on certain roads in an effort to reduce the damage heavier loads can cause during the spring thaw.
 
Meanwhile, farmers in Manitoba's low lying Red River valley are anxious of floods, particularly given the amount of snow dumped on the Prairies this winter.
 
With grain still sitting in fields, farmers could lose their crops completely if the region should flood.
 
Industry now estimates the backlog could cost farmers and grain companies more than $2 billion before it's cleared up.
 
Another $6.5 billion is expected to be tied up in the more than 20 million tonnes of grain that will likely carry over into the next crop year.
 
Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz has ordered the railways to come up with a short term plan to ease the backlog by 24 Feb 2014.
 
In the interim, the railways said they have been meeting with both the Minister and the Minister of Transport at least once a week.
 
Kelsey Johnson.