Although they hope that the railway sector labour dispute will be resolved before Thursday, several Quebec ministers are pressuring Ottawa to intervene if a strike or lockout should ever be triggered.
“I hope that the parties will reach an agreement by tomorrow, but if there is no agreement by tomorrow, I ask Justin Trudeau to have the courage to take action. This is too important for the Quebec economy,” said Premier François Legault upon his arrival at the National Assembly on Wednesday.
More than 9,000 workers at the country’s two largest railway companies, Canadian National Railway Company (CN) and Canadian Pacific Railway Company Kansas City (CPKC), could go on strike at midnight Wednesday night if no agreement is reached.
CPKC workers have filed a strike notice that would see them walk off the job as of 12:01 a.m. Eastern time Thursday. CN intends to lock out its employees at the same time unless a settlement or binding arbitration is reached by then.
“Potentially devastating impacts”
The companies’ trains carry a combined $1 billion worth of goods daily, according to the Railway Association of Canada.
A situation that led the Minister of Labour, Jean Boulet, to say that the strike could have “potentially devastating impacts” on “the supply of goods and merchandise” in Quebec.
“We must not take the economy hostage,” he said, while assuring that he had confidence in the mediation process undertaken by the two parties concerned.
“The entire supply chain could be put at risk. […] So it is certain that the parties must agree, and if not, we must have a federal government that will be agile to act quickly,” affirmed the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, André Lamontagne.
Transport Minister Geneviève Guilbault said she is in communication with her federal counterpart, Pablo Rodriguez. “We want there to be an agreement between the two parties, but if that is not the case – because we are approaching the strike deadline – we want the federal government to put pressure on and get even more involved in resolving this problem,” she said.
“It has a major impact. I think we need to resolve this by Thursday. I think the federal government will get involved. We’ve had indirect discussions,” said Economy Minister Pierre Fitzgibbon.