The CN Rail strike will affect a lot of things in Canada, but it’ll take a toll specifically on grain producers who rely on the train to bring their grain to market.
Pam Derocquigny, the General Manager of the Manitoba Wheat and Barley Growers Association, says that while a strike is never ideal, the timing of this one is particularly concerning.
“It’s been a challenging harvest for many of our producers in the province, and it’s been a struggle to get the crop off and into the bin,” said Derocquigny. “It’s just unfortunate that at this point, for those producers who are looking to market their crop, and move it obviously, that if CN is their only access or delivery point to get the grain moving into market, that obviously can impact producers’ ability to market, and therefore the cash flow of their crop.”
Derocquigny added that this isn’t the first time that a rail company has been on strike, noting that the previous strike only lasted 5 days. While this strike is only on day 2, the uncertainty of how long the strike will last is adding to producer stress.
“It’s one of those situations when there’s uncertainty it’s never a good thing,” said Derocquigny. “We’ve been through an extremely challenging harvest, and many producers are still trying to harvest. Those challenges, and of course, those higher stress levels related trying to get the crop off, and now we have another factor like this where there’s uncertainty as to, you’ve got the crop in the bin, how do we get it to market?”
The CN Teamsters and the federal government are talking to try and end the dispute as soon as possible, which Derocquigny says is promising.
