More than 150 freight trains halted, CN says,
Railway says more than 150 freight trains have been halted since Thursday evening
MONTREAL— Canadian National Railway Co. says it will be forced to close “significant” parts of its Canadian network unless blockades impeding its rail lines are removed.
CN has halted more than 150 freight trains since Thursday evening, when demonstrators set up blockades in
British Columbia and Ontario in solidarity with opponents of the Coastal GasLink pipeline project that crosses the traditional territory of the Wet’suwet’en First Nation in northwestern British Columbia.
Via Rail said157 passenger trains have also been cancelled, affecting 24,500 travellers on routes between Montreal and Toronto and Ottawa and Toronto.
The ongoing blockades sit near Belleville, Ont., and New Hazleton in B.C.’s northern interior while other demonstrations cropped up Tuesday in locations ranging from the Halifax port to the B.C. legislature.
Industry groups are also expressing concern about the shutdown as shipments to and from the U.S. and China are delayed or cancelled.
“It’s real crisis,” said Joel Neuheimer, head of international trade with the Forest Products Association of Canada.
Wood, pulp and paper producers have lost tens of millions of dollars so far, he said. “We ship massive amounts of pulp to the United States and to places like Asia, so big negative impacts there,” Neuheimer said in a phone interview. “We have members whose customers aren’t placing orders right now in the U.S. because they know that it’s not going to get there as soon as it needs to get there.”
CN chief executive JJ Ruest stressed the limited parking space in its network, with traffic backed up from Halifax to Windsor, Ont., and in parts of B.C. approaching Prince Rupert.
“We are currently parking trains across our network, but due to limited available space for such, CN will have no choice but to temporarily discontinue service in key corridors unless the blockades come to an end,” Ruest said in a statement.
The Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters association is urging government officials to work with police to restore rail service.
Federal Transport Minister Marc Garneau said he is working with the railways and his Ontario counterpart Caroline Mulroney to find a solution and that blockage of tracks is “dangerous and illegal.”
Despite the countrywide impact, responsibility for enforcing court injunctions against the anti-pipeline protesters lies with provincial politicians and police, he noted.
Ontario Provincial Police said officers are in talks with protesters behind a blockade that sits metres from the tracks, though not across them.
OPP spokesperson Bill Dickson said an officer of the court read an injunction to the protesters Tuesday ordering them to abandon the blockade near Belleville.
Dickson says that while CN obtained the injunction on Friday, Tuesday marked the first time it was read aloud in accordance with court procedure.
Brendan Marshall, head of economic and northern affairs at the Mining Association of Canada, echoed CN’s concerns and said buyers of natural resource products were as vulnerable as producers.