Ontario Northland announces layoffs in refurbishment department

Ontario Northland in North Bay says it has issued 31 layoff notices to employees in its refurbishment department.

"Unfortunately, like other organizations in remanufacturing there are times when there are gaps in the work," Corina Moore, president and CEO of the company said.

"We had to realign to align with what that work requirement is."

The department does remanufacturing of passenger and freight cars as well as locomotive work.

Moore says in recent years, the company has been able to secure contracts with a number of companies, including the Canadian National Railway.

She says the company hopes to rehire the workers "as soon as possible."

"These are really skilled individuals who we've invested in [and] we care for these employees," she said.

"We have some real good leads in sales, some large contracts that would potentially come to North Bay, and they should come to North Bay because we have a unique skill set."

Moore says more than 200 people work in the department.