The Crow Rate or Crow's Nest Freight Rate was a subsidy offered to the Canadian Pacific Railway by the Canadian government. The subsidy was instituted by an 1897 agreement between the CPR and the federal government. The purpose of the subsidy was to enable the CPR to expand westward over the Canadian Rockies through the Crow's Nest Pass, while reducing the transportation costs for farmers in the Canadian Prairies. In exchange for cash and perpetual title to the CPR over the lands which the railway would run, the CPR would reduce shipping rates for listed agricultural products forever.