Sask. could lose hundreds of millions if rail strike happens

Saskatchewan’s government wants the federal government along with CN Rail and Canadian Pacific Kansas City (CPKC) to come to a new agreement now, to prevent a possible nationwide rail strike.

Around 9,300 conductors, engineers and yard workers at the two rail companies have been bargaining over new collective agreements for months. Both companies have said they will lock out workers on Aug. 22 if an agreement is not reached.

On Thursday, Minister of Agriculture David Marit with a dozen representatives from some of Saskatchewan and Canada’s largest exporting companies spoke about how much they risk to lose if an agreement isn’t reached by next week.

“This has an impact on the entire economy of this country,” Marit stated. “This has the impact on every citizen in this country. Not just a farmer or rancher or an oil company or potash mine, this is going to have an impact on every citizen in this country.”

Marit didn’t have a specific number for how much the province could lose if the rail lines were shut down for the day — other than it’s in the range of hundreds of millions of dollars.

Marit suggested it’s not just the economy that would be impacted, but so too would trade relationships built by the province, country and other companies that export goods internationally.

“It could jeopardize trading relationships and it has. The strike in 2014 — we’re still feeling the effects of that with some of the international players as well,” he said.

“What it really does is if it backs (trade) up a day here, it could back it up days and months by the time a product is delivered,” he added. “So (if) you have a canola crush facility in another country that is waiting for a shipment of canola and they got no canola to crush and they know it’s not coming for 30 to 40 days they’re going to go find it somewhere (else).”

Marit wants the federal government to deem the rail line as an essential service so they can force workers back on the job and prevent any possible strike.

“I really hope that common sense will prevail here and all parties will get back to the table or the federal government will take the appropriate actions to ensure that we don’t have a transportation disruption,” Merit added.

The provincial government has sent letters in the past to the federal government asking for them to make rail an essential service.

Minister of Highways and Infrastructure Lori Carr said a strike would be devastating to producers.

“It’s really heartbreaking for the industries that you have because you’ve heard them talk about what they produce for the world. It’s not just for Canada – they’re sending their goods,” she said. Adding 70 per cent of what’s produced is exported globally.

“A majority of those products go by rail. It’s paramount that this service is available for all of these companies so that they can continue to do business and be a reliable service for the world.”