3 Maritime senators ask PM to call Parliament, develop backup plan and mitigate impact of CN strike
'We're saying there's a major impact here in the Maritimes'
Three senators from the Maritimes have written a letter to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau asking him to summon Parliament before his speech from the throne on Dec. 5, in an effort to help resolve the CN strike.
P.E.I. Sen. Diane Griffin, Nova Scotia Sen. Stephen Greene and New Brunswick Sen. David Richards sent the letter to Ottawa on Monday.
About 3,200 CN employees, members of the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference union, walked off the job last Tuesday. They've been without a contract since July 23, and say they're concerned about long hours, fatigue and what they consider dangerous working conditions.
Griffin said she and her colleagues wanted to bring more attention to the issue in Eastern Canada.
"We're hearing a lot on the national media about the impact that it's having on Western Canada and Central Canada," she said.
"We're saying there's a major impact here in the Maritimes."
Loss of product, jobs
Concerns expressed in the letter include how a limited supply of propane would impact the region.
"Drying grain will not occur or will be cut back and that's going to mean loss of crops and loss of quality of product," said Griffin in an interview with CBC.
Griffin said the strike also has the ability to affect the Island beyond the agriculture industry.
"Hospitals and other institutions rely on propane either for heating, or for cooking fuel, or for sterilizing implements."
She said her staff has been in contact with a number of sources on the Island to get a handle on how bad the situation is.
"A lot of people may not realize it — because of course we don't have trains anymore on Prince Edward Island — but a lot of products come into Moncton and are off-loaded onto trucks to come to Prince Edward Island," she said.
"We are going to feel the impact. We're at the end of the line so it's going to impact us in terms of our imports but it will also impact us in terms of our exports."
This strike — if it goes on any amount of time is going to affect the livelihood of quite a large number of people.- Sen. Diane Griffin
Griffin said the strike could also have a devastating effect on ports in the Maritimes such as Halifax and Saint John.
"Out-of-country shippers will simply go further south to New York or Connecticut ports and use CP rail connections in order to get their products up into Quebec and Ontario," she said.
"That will have a bad effect on both Halifax and Saint John and those are major ports. They're major employers."
Griffin said she and the other senators are asking Ottawa to develop a backup plan in case an agreement is not reached soon.
"This strike — if it goes on any amount of time is going to affect the livelihood of quite a large number of people."
Griffin said as of right now, she's been told that there are no plans to call Parliament before Dec. 5.