Photo by Curtis Galbraith

By Curtis Galbraith

CN Strike

Warkentin says Parliament must deal with the CN strike

Nov 21, 2019 | 4:31 AM

The MP for Grande Prairie-Mackenzie says the Prime Minister must recall Parliament immediately to deal with the CN Rail strike.

Chris Warkentin says he is very worried about how the strike will impact local industries.

“The vast majority of the commodities that we have here in the Peace Country will be impacted by this strike action. The forestry sector, agriculture, and oil and gas all will be impacted by this strike and, frankly, it’s a matter of days not a matter of weeks or months before it becomes a massive problem.”

He thinks the government has to bring in back-to-work legislation.

“There is nothing that is going to encourage the parties to go back and negotiate without back-to-work legislation. The union has been stating that the only way they’ll go back is if legislation is tabled and passed and we believe that needs to be a possible threat to encourage the parties to negotiate in good faith.”

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Grande Prairie CN workers are not on strike as they belong to a different union than the ones who walked off the job Tuesday.

Warkentin says there will still be backlogs.

“The ports get clogged up. We have a number of products that need to get in, obviously resin for OSB plants. We’ve got to have a product that moves beyond the Peace Country that has to get to ports. As these trains start to get impeded, it just grinds everything to a halt.”

The CN workers in Peace River are among those on strike.

Parliament is set to resume sitting December 5, two weeks from Thursday.