Rail stoppage impacting N.B. as feds try to end the shutdown
2 largest railways ground to a halt, federal government orders binding arbitration
A nationwide rail stoppage began overnight and the port in Saint John is already feeling the impact only hours into the disruption. And even as the federal government has ordered an end to the shutdown, there's no telling when things will start to move.
"Potash is obviously very, very crucial to global food security, and we started to see that wind down throughout the week," said Craig Bell Estabrooks, the president and CEO of Port Saint John.
"We know shipments that are destined for Saint John — and hopefully will be destined for Saint John eventually — have been halted in central Canada."
Late Thursday afternoon, Federal Labour Minister Steve MacKinnon announced that he had ordered binding arbitration and an end to the shut down, but couldn't be precise about when rail service would resume, other than to say "soon."
He said it's in the hands now of the federal industrial relations board, which has a process to follow.
In the culmination of months of increasingly bitter negotiations, Canadian National Railway and Canadian Pacific Kansas City locked out 9,300 engineers, conductors and yard workers after the parties failed to agree on a new contract before the midnight deadline.
The companies haul a combined $1 billion in goods each day, according to the Railway Association of Canada. Many shipments were stopped pre-emptively to avoid stranding cargo.
Denis Caron, CEO of the Port of Belledune, said in an email to CBC News that the port is not impacted because CN service to the port is limited. Most of the bulk product at the port comes in or out by truck or vessels, he added.
Trucking industry can only do so much
The region's trucking industry is eager to help but can't remedy the entire situation, said Chris McKee, executive director of the Atlantic Provinces Trucking Association, which represents about 340 trucking companies.
"There is some capacity in our industry to pick up some of these other loads of cargo being affected by this rail shutdown," McKee said.
"Our members welcome this uptick in capacity, but with that said —just some of it. We cannot handle all of it, not by a long shot."
Many commodities are generally shipped by rail and not truck, such as propane or chlorine, he said.
Since they are dangerous goods, "You can't just switch them to trucks automatically," McKee said.
Regulations are strict for transporting dangerous goods, and drivers require special training, so the trucking industry can only do so much, he said.
"Volumes are such in our industry right now that we can help pick up some of the slack, but we definitely cannot take over from both of our nation's railways and pick up all of the freight movements that are now all grounded."
Since the stoppage was predicted, McKee said some of his members have been hearing from shippers for weeks looking to move their freight to truck, and some trucking companies are considering new routes they normally wouldn't.
As of Thursday morning, Bell Estabrooks said, locally, no ships had decided to divert, "but as boxes could come in and you're not able to utilize, you know, your intermodal rail services, you're going to start to get bottlenecks, and we will return to that kind of pandemic level of supply chain disruption."
When asked at what point he expects to see cargo start getting stuck at the port, he said it'll be "hours and days, not weeks and months."
Bell Estabrooks said the port exports a lot of frozen products, such as french fries, that can't sit on the docks and still be consumed. He said on Monday, CPKC had already started ramping down refrigerated services at ports across the country, including in Saint John.
A resolution to this stoppage is needed — and quickly, he said, but he remains hopeful, despite looming backups.
"All disruptions come to an end, you know, there will be a resolution," he said. "What we don't know is how long will it take and what will it look like.
"So I'm hopeful people can get to the table … and we can get cargo moving again here very, very soon."
Premier weighs in
In a statement, New Brunswick Premier Blaine Higgs said he wants to see the federal government step in to initiate binding arbitration.
"Manufacturers and other businesses in New Brunswick rely on rail to move their products and this conflict hurts them each day this drags on," Higgs said.
"We simply can't afford to let this get any worse."
Industry groups such as the Canadian Chamber of Commerce have also called for binding arbitration.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Thursday afternoon the federal government will have an update to the situation soon.
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With files from Information Morning in the Summer, Rachel Cave, and The Canadian Press