‘We need to ship our product:’ Sask producers want rail dispute settled

The Agricultural Producers Association Of Saskatchewan (APAS) are hoping for a quick resolution to the labour dispute between rail workers and CN Rail and Canadian Pacific Kansas City (CPKC).

The workers are represented by the Teamsters union, which recently appealed the federal labour board’s decision to impose binding arbitration that ended the strike by CPKC workers and the lockout by CN Rail.

APAS President Ian Boxall said it needs to be understood how important rail service is for Saskatchewan producers.

“We’re in the middle of the country, equal distance from either port. We need the railroads to send our products out to port so that it can be shipped around the world to the people that require it,” Boxall told 980 CJME on Friday.

“The rail is critical to producers, it’s critical to Canada. We are an exporting nation, we produce a lot of products here that are looked to around the world and we need to ensure we deliver those products in a timely fashion to the end users.”

With the importance of rail to the Canadian economy, Boxall said he fears that Canada’s trading partners will look to alternatives if the country is seen as unreliable in its ability to deliver goods on time.

Boxall said he doesn’t have an opinion on whether or not the workers should be able to strike — only that he wanted to see the union and the rail companies at the table and coming up with a result that works for both.

Boxall said farmers are concerned as they head into harvest season.

“We need to ship our product, we need to be able to deliver our product and get paid,” Boxall said.

“If country elevators are full because they can’t ship out on the rail, then we can’t deliver and hence we can’t get paid. So, this will be a huge cash flow issue for producers.”

Boxall said railroads are operating at a maximum capacity already, so if any more time is lost in the fall, it can’t be made up, leaving farmers behind for the rest of the growing year.

Boxall also said trucking isn’t a feasible or cost-effective option for farmers to move product.