Photo courtesy: Randy Shoop
CN Rail blockades

CN Rail blockades cost wood, pulp and paper producers tens of millions

Feb 12, 2020 | 4:11 PM

PRINCE GEORGE – With the forced shut down of parts of significant portions of its Canadian network, the economic implications are quickly being felt across the country.

The blockades have been set up on CN’s northern mainline between Prince George and Prince Rupert, as well as blockades near Belleville, ON, on CN’s only eastern link between Western Canada and Eastern Canada and between Eastern Canada and the US Mid-West.

“We have obtained court injunctions for both locations and we are working with local enforcement agencies to enforce the orders,” said JJ Ruest, president and CEO of CN Rail. “We have also engaged with customers, industry associations as well as officials in Ottawa and across Canada to explain to them the consequences and material impact that shutting down the railroad will have on their constituents.”

The head of international trade with the Forest Products Association of Canada says the shutdown of rail lines in Ontario and B.C. is causing a crisis for the industry as protests continue against the Coastal GasLink pipeline.

Joel Neuheimer says wood, pulp and paper producers have lost tens of millions of dollars so far.

UNBC lecturer Charles Scott told CKPG that he’s worried.

“This is an asset of national strategic importance that can not to be allowed to be disrupted. I don’t see this being allowed to go on for much longer. Do we really want to have national scaled resource development stopped because a handful of people don’t like it? I worry about where that leads us.”

Todd Doherty, Cariboo-Prince George MP and Shadow Minister for Transport says he’s frustrated with the events unfolding as it pertains to the transportation of goods across Canada, as well as the CGL pipeline.

“We’re a trading nation. Our economic prosperity is predicated on the movement of goods and people. These blockades, they’re not just impacting the passenger trains, they’re impacting the shipment of goods to and from our customers,” said Doherty.

He states that over $250-billion annually are shipped on CN. About 900-thousand tons of goods every day.

“These groups, they know this. They know they’re going to hit it where it hurts the most, and that is our economic prosperity.”

The B.C. Supreme Court ruled back on December 31, 2019, that Coastal GasLink had suffered irreparable harm after pipeline opponents built blockades and camps to stop work crews from accessing parts of the natural gas pipeline route between Dawson Creek and Kitimat.

“These blockades that are taking place, whether it be at our railways or our legislature, they’re illegal,” said Doherty. “You have the right to protest in our country but BC judges rule that anybody that is blocking the access to or the progress on this project is breaking the law.”

Doherty further stated that the federal government can’t sit and allow activists to freeze the country’s economy.

“We need to see our federal government step up and force a rule of law.”

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