The work stoppage at Canada’s two main railway companies could have a devastating impact on businesses nationwide that rely on rail, but organizations representing grain farmers on the Prairies are concerned about the lasting effects beyond the lockout.
Grain Growers of Canada director Kyle Larkin says the situation is a concerning one for the country’s 65,000 grain farmers at a very critical time of year.
“Each and every single one of them is going to be impacted by this. They’re not going to be able to sell their crops that they’re out harvesting right now,” Larkin told 680 CJOB’s Connecting Winnipeg.
“We’ve estimated that the impacts on grain farmers themselves is going to be around $50 million a day. That’s just a small drop in the bucket when you think of the total impacts on the entire Canadian economy.”
Even a one-week shutdown, Larkin said, will have at least a six-week impact, damaging Canada’s reputation on the international stage.
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“There’s just simply no viable alternative. Of the millions of tonnes of grain that is transported on a daily basis by rail, we don’t have enough trucks, we don’t have enough truck drivers, to put out there to find an alternative to this.
“Without rail, food and grain isn’t going to be transported across Canada, it’s not going to be delivered to Canadians and it’s certainly not going to be delivered to our international markets.”
Wade Sobkowich of the Western Grain Elevators Association has similar concerns and said the shutdown may impact future exports.
“Once they are getting supply from a different country and figuring out that formula, then you stand to lose a customer, and that really, really hurts our reputation as a reliable supplier,” he said.
“(It) really damages our sector as being able to demand a premium for the crop that farmers grow.”
Sobkowich said he wants a fair deal, but believes binding arbitration could get the situation resolved quickly.
And it’s not only farmers who will feel the pinch. Terry Shaw of Winnipeg-based Canadian Manufacturers & Exporters told Connecting Winnipeg that nearly all businesses — including retailers, grocers, food processing companies and more — will be affected by the shutdown.
“A billion dollars a day moves by rail. Over half of that, $531 million every day of manufactured goods moves on Canadian railways and that has stopped.
“This isn’t a manufacturing issue, this very genuinely is a Canadian economic issue.”
Shaw said Canada simply can’t afford to shut the railways down, and that he would have liked to have seen the government take action to prevent the lockout from happening.
“The minister of labour, under Section 107 of the Canada Labour Code, has the authority to push this into binding arbitration,” he said. “The federal government, Parliament, can reconvene and introduce back-to-work legislation.
“Those are two tools that should have been enacted before this shutdown occurred.”
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