Businesses warn of dire consequences as rail shutdown looms

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MONTREAL — Hours away from an unprecedented potential shutdown at the country’s two biggest railways, business groups ratcheted up their pleas for Ottawa to step in and prevent a work stoppage that would upend supply chains — while the prime minister stressed a deal at the table is the best outcome.

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A phased wind-down at Canadian National Railway Co. and Canadian Pacific Kansas City Ltd. was already near completion Wednesday evening as negotiators struggled to find common ground in contract talks with the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference, with wages and scheduling as key sticking points.

The parties remained in talks into the evening, after CPKC and union representatives sat down separately with Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon in Calgary earlier in the day.

Unless agreements are reached, rail service at both companies is poised to hit the brakes at 12:01 a.m. EDT on Thursday.

Industry groups earlier in the day had urged the government to intervene.

“The federal government must show leadership and act before our trains — and with them, our economy — grind to a halt,” read a joint statement from the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, Business Council of Canada, Canadian Federation of Independent Business and Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters.

“It affects everybody,” said Dennis Darby, CEO of the latter, in a phone interview. “Rail is that primary connection to the ports.

“You can’t roll the dice and say, well, let’s hope they’re going to come up with a plan.”

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Under the Canada Labour Code, the federal labour minister can refer the dispute to the Canada Industrial Relations Board for binding arbitration and prohibit a strike or lockout in the interim, the business groups said.

Alternatively, they suggested the government recall Parliament and pass back-to-work legislation — a step taken by a previous Conservative government during a rail strike in 2012, and a move it threatened to make in 2015.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau urged the parties on Wednesday to hammer out a deal themselves rather than rely on federal intervention.

“My message has been straightforward. It is in the best interest of both sides to continue doing the hard work at the table to find a negotiated resolution,” he told reporters in Ottawa.

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“Millions of Canadians, workers, of farmers, of businesses right across the country are counting on both sides to do the work to get a resolution.”

A stoppage by 9,300 engineers, conductors and yard workers at CN and CPKC would mark the first-ever simultaneous shutdown at the country’s main railroad operators.

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Their trains haul a combined $1 billion worth of freight per day, ranging from cars and clothes to salt and cement, according to the Railway Association of Canada.

“The knock-on effects would be a multiple of that,” said Ulrich Paschen, a business instructor at Kwantlen Polytechnic University, noting that the goods hauled are used in turn to make other products, from flour to furniture.

“It would start trickling down to consumers pretty quickly.”

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Industries hit hardest would include agriculture, mining, energy, retail, automaking and construction.

Conifex Timber said 250 employees will be affected as it cuts the operating schedule at its sawmill in Mackenzie, B.C., to one shift per day from two, starting on Monday.

Chief operating officer Andrew McLellan said the move, which will last “for the foreseeable future,” stems from the shutdown on new rail shipments coupled with poor market conditions.

“There’s not a whole bunch of trucks around that are available to move the volume that we require,” said Ken Shields, the company’s chairman and CEO, in a phone interview.

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“And the trucking rates are much more expensive, so it’s a money-losing proposition to substitute truck deliveries for rail deliveries.”

Both railways have issued lockout notices for a minute past midnight on Thursday, while the union has served a strike notice to CPKC that would kick in at the same time.

Canadian Pacific barred virtually all new shipments on Tuesday morning, and CN did the same Wednesday to avoid leaving any goods stranded on the tracks.

Ports fear containers will pile up on the docks as cargo goes unmoved, causing congestion down the line and prompting some carriers to reroute to U.S. terminals.

Victor Pang, chief financial officer at the Vancouver Fraser Port Authority, pointed to the 13-day strike by 7,400 B.C. dockworkers last summer as a cautionary tale. Manufacturers said the job action blocked the flow of $500 million worth of goods each day.

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“The kind of disruption that we had back in July, it took us multiple months to clear out,” Pang said.

The number of vessel arrivals at the Port of Vancouver — the country’s biggest — has already fallen 22 per cent over the past four weeks as shippers sought to steer clear of potential disruptions, according to supply chain platform Everstream Analytics.

Quebec deputy premier Genevieve Guilbault pegged responsibility for a possible rail halt on the prime minister, calling on Trudeau to “have the courage to take action” if no deal was reached by Thursday. Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland pointed to the railways and union, saying that “they need to take their responsibilities seriously.”

More than 32,000 rail commuters across the country will also have to find new routes to the office if a work stoppage occurs at CPKC.

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Transit authorities have said select commuter lines that run on Canadian Pacific tracks in Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver will be suspended should dispatchers walk off the job.

The commuter lines affected by the potential work stoppage are TransLink’s West Coast Express in the Vancouver area, Metrolinx’s Milton line and the Lakeshore line’s Hamilton GO station in the Greater Toronto Area, and Exo’s Candiac, Saint-Jerome and Vaudreuil/Hudson lines in the Montreal area.

Riders on Via Rail’s 480-kilometre Sudbury-White River line, which runs three times a week in northern Ontario, would also be out of luck.

Retailers are worried about the ripple effects as well.

“Product is not being loaded onto various forms of transportation because of the expectation that it could just get backlogged and stuck,” said Michelle Wasylyshen, a spokeswoman at the Retail Council of Canada.

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“We’re looking at holiday shopping products, Halloween products, even food items.”

— With files from Tara Deschamps in Toronto, Nojoud Al Mallees in Outaouais, Que., and Aaron Sousa in Edmonton

A look at recent major railway strikes at CN Rail and CPKC

Canada has an active history of rail strikes dating back to at least the early 20th century.

Here are some of the most recent job actions at the country’s two main freight railways, Canadian National Railway Co. and Canadian Pacific Kansas City Ltd., formerly known as CP Rail, as the clock ticks down to a potential work stoppage this Thursday.

2012

Canadian Pacific workers went on strike for nine days before the Conservative government ordered them back to work via legislation.

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2015

A two-day walkout by Canadian Pacific employees ended under threat of a back-to-work bill under the government of then-prime minister Stephen Harper, with the two sides agreeing to binding arbitration.

2018

A strike by 3,000 CP Rail engineers and conductors ended 16 hours after it began as the parties settled on a tentative four-year deal.

2019

A strike by more than 3,000 workers at Canadian National gripped the country for eight days before they reached a collective agreement.

2022

Canadian Pacific workers hit the picket lines for 60 hours that March before a tentative contract with the company was hammered out.

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