CN strike tops agenda during minister’s visit
Canada’s agriculture minister was in Regina on Monday for the opening of Canadian Western Agribition, where she committed to keeping the impact of the Canadian National (CN) rail strike top of mind at the cabinet table.
“We understand that producers need a reliable rail system to get their products to market on time,” said Marie-claude Bibeau, a Quebec MP who held onto the agriculture portfolio at last week’s cabinet shuffle. “I am in regular contact with the minister of transport and the minister of labour, and we are urging both parties to come to a deal as soon as possible.”
The CN strike is now in its seventh day, with about 3,200 unionized employees off the job. Bibeau wouldn’t give a timeline for how long the federal government can wait for a deal and insisted that a negotiated settlement is the preferred outcome.
But she didn’t rule out the notion of back-to-work legislation when asked about it.
“Every option is always on the table,” she said. “But for the time being we hope that both parties will get to an agreement, and that would be the fastest way as well.”
The Saskatchewan government has urged the federal cabinet to recall Parliament and intervene to put an end to the strike, which is cutting off market access for many farmers precisely when they need to move grain after a difficult harvest.
Provincial Agriculture Minister David Marit was set to sit down with Bibeau for a meeting after a tour through Agribition.
He said the CN strike would be first on the agenda.
“My point to her at noon hour will be stressing the urgency of this, to reconvene if they have to, to move this file forward,” said Marit.
“I would hope that they will act within a matter of days. I was hoping there would have been some actions by both parties now.”
Marit said Saskatchewan’s reputation as a reliable exporter is at stake. Bibeau seemed to get the picture. She committed to continue reminding her fellow cabinet ministers about how much the strike could affect farmers.
“It’s also a matter of Canadian reputation and reliability on our agricultural products,” she said. “So I’m making sure that my colleagues understand that very, very well.”
Marit was also planning to raise the topic of business risk management for farmers with Bibeau, as well as the added costs producers are facing due to the federal carbon price as they dry grain during a wet harvest.
Bibeau didn’t make any explicit commitments on giving rebates to those farmers. But she signalled that the federal government is examining ways to relieve the pressure.
“I think that producers deserve to be recognized for the good work they are doing in terms of protecting our environment and having good practices,” she said. “In one way or another their efforts should be recognized, and I’m working on that.”
Bibeau then took a tour through rows of cattle on show.
She and Marit posed for a picture with Cameron Davidson, a nine-year-old boy in a black cowboy hat who hails from a ranching family near Ponteix. His grandmother, Eileen Davidson, was pleased to see Bibeau in town.
“I think she’ll catch on fast,” she said.
Davidson said agriculture in Saskatchewan is facing “a trying year.”
She runs a mixed operation raising Gelbvieh cattle but also grains. She worried that the CN strike will make its effects felt throughout the agricultural sector.
“We host a bull sale on our farm. If the grain farmers that raise cattle can’t sell their product they have no money to buy our bulls. So we need to have that grain moved,” she said.
“Every time someone doesn’t have the money in agriculture to do what they need to do, they put the pressure on someplace else.”
But Joe Barnett was more wary of Bibeau’s visit.
One of the owners of Twin View Livestock near Parkbeg, he said it’s great for her to come out to Saskatchewan but the last four years have made him a skeptic.
“I hope that the minister recognizes that the people in these barns are relying on her and, I know, as a westerner, as somebody who’s in the industry, I do feel a great disconnect to government,” he said.
“Whether she is a strong advocate for agriculture … I don’t know. Time will tell I suppose.”