From small lodges to major ports, the railway labour dispute is affecting northern Ontario

There are only two ways to get to the remote Mar Mac Lodge in northeastern Ontario: by rail or by float plane.

Owner Debbie Johnston says a labour dispute at Canada's two largest railways – Canadian National Railway Co. (CN) and Canadian Pacific Kansas City Ltd.(CPKC)  – has meant she is facing possible significant costs for the shipment of supplies, and making alternative arrangements for her guests.

"I have customers right now who arrived via the train that I will have to find alternate transportation to get them back to their vehicles which are sitting in White River, Ontario, right now," she said.

In a given season, Johnston says around half of her guests arrive by taking VIA Rail's Budd Car, which uses the CPKC rail line to transport adventurous passengers from Sudbury to White River.

Along the route it stops at many lodges, like Mar Mac, that don't have road access.

That rail line is also how Johnston receives most of the supplies she needs to stock and maintain the lodges on her property.

"Because we are remote, off the beaten track, no roads come into our business. It means getting a float plane secured in order to transport supplies at a significantly larger cost than what the train delivers them for," Johnston said.

Johnston says the cost to have supplies delivered by float plane is about 10 times higher.

In addition to her customers already at her property, Johnston says she has others ready to arrive from Sudbury.

Without the Budd train running, though, they would need to drive nearly seven hours to White River, where they can then board a small float plane to the lodge.

Tara Anderson Hart, the mayor of the Township of White River, says tourists arriving in town on the Budd Car are an important part of the local economy.

"People changing their plans is going to make a big impact on a small town like ours," she said.

But Hart says the vast majority of rail traffic through the community is for freight.

Port of Thunder Bay 

In northwestern Ontario, the labour dispute with the two major railways has already been having a significant impact on the Port of Thunder Bay, says its CEO Chris Heikkinen. 

"Rail is critical to virtually all of the operations at the port," he said.

"So the cargo that is exported out of Thunder Bay primarily reaches the port via both CN and CPKC railways."

Heikkinen says some operations at the port will be able to continue for a limited time, but a lot of outbound shipments would be stopped with the railway workers idled for any length of time. 

"The cost that we're most worried about is really our reputational cost, We're known as a reliable supply chain route," he said.

Port terminals in Thunder Bay are independently owned and operated. Heikkinen says it remains to be seen what impact the labour dispute will have on jobs at those terminals.

Late Thursday afternoon, the federal government stepped in, and ordered the two companies into binding arbitration.  The federal labour minister, Steven MacKinnon, says he's also asked the Canada Labour Relations Board to order the railways to resume operations under the terms of the current collective agreements until new deals are in place.