Day 1 of rail work stoppage halted $55M in Alberta products

Thousands of conductors, yard workers and engineers at Canada's two largest railways are expected to return to work within days.

It comes as federal labour minister Steven MacKinnon ordered Canadian National Railway and Canadian Pacific Kansas City into binding arbitration with Teamsters Canada after he said the two sides had reached an impasse.

That impasse left $55 million of Alberta products at a standstill Thursday and triggered panic throughout Canada's supply chain.

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MacKinnon says millions of Canadians rely on the railway system each day, including Edmonton's Teresa Spinelli, who owns Edmonton's Italian Centre shops.

Spinelli told CTV News Edmonton she's waiting on a rail car with 30,000 kilograms of cheese from Italy, a delay that will cost her business.

"That’s a lot of money, for sure — thousands and thousands of dollars," she said, adding this is the time of year when she typically orders pastas, oils and cheese for the year ahead.

"I think the worst case scenario would be that a lot of different products won't be available, then the ones that are become very expensive because the quantity is so limited," she said.

MacKinnon told reporters in Ottawa he will not be reconvening parliament to pass back-to-work legislation. Rather, he will wait for binding arbitration to play out through the Canada Industrial Relations Board,

MacKinnon expects the process will take just a matter of days before workers return to work.

Alberta businesses will feel the impact of the shutdown more than other parts of Canada because it uses rail to ship products more than any other province, says Scott Crockatt, the Business Council of Alberta's vice-president of communications and external relations.

"The impact is outsized here," Crockatt told CTV News Edmonton.

A local agriculture expert said the railway shutdown that started Wednesday evening would be detrimental to prairie farmers and "catastrophic to agriculture, to the province, in every facet."

"From the Edmonton region, down to Red Deer, across to the Saskatchewan border, there's close to probably $17 million a day of grain deliveries being delivered to the various elevators and processing plants," Milt Miller of Providence Grain Solutions told CTV News Edmonton on Thursday morning.

"All rely on rail to move it back out."

CN Rail and CPKC locked out 9,300 workers at 10:01 p.m. MT on Wednesday after the groups failed to agree on a new contract after months of negotiations.

A solution to a deal had seemed out of reach before Ottawa stepped in.

"They are asking for increases in salaries, they are asking for benefits for life, they are asking for signing bonuses of several thousands of dollars — that's why they are holding the Canadian economy hostage," Jonathan Abecassis, the director of public affairs and media relations for CN Rail, told media on Thursday.

The shutdown marked the first ever simultaneous stoppage at both of Canada's national railways.

"This work stoppage is an employer driver work stoppage," Christopher Monette of Teamsters Canada told CTV News Vancouver on Wednesday night. "It's going to last as long as the companies want it to. The moment CN and CPKC decide they want a deal, we’re going to be able to get a breakthrough pretty quickly, but it’s up to them to show the flexibility, willingness to compromise."

The companies haul a combined total of about $1 billion in goods each day, including an estimated $55 million in goods from Alberta alone.

Crew safety and fatigue are key issues for rail workers.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau responded to the work stoppage on Thursday.

"We are not taking this lightly, obviously, because Canadians across the country are worried about it," he told reporters.

With files from CTV News Edmonton's Nicole Lampa and CTV News Vancouver