Traffic at Canada’s two largest railways is slated to resume today following a Saturday decision by the federal labour board that ended a disruptive work stoppage. Canadian National Railway Co. (CN) and Calgary-based Canadian Pacific Kansas City (CPKC) locked out over 9,000 workers last Thursday amid an ongoing contract dispute with the Teamsters union, bringing freight traffic to a halt across the nation and disrupting major commuter lines in Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver.
The Canada Industrial Relations Board ordered both rail companies and their workers to resume operations at 12:01 a.m. Monday, ahead of binding arbitration. This decision is critical for Alberta, where the rail stoppage had severely impacted industries reliant on freight, particularly agriculture and energy.
CPKC, a key player in Alberta’s economy, stated that it would take several weeks for the railway network to fully recover and even longer for supply chains to stabilize. While the Teamsters union has vowed to appeal the decision, the resumption of rail traffic offers hope that Alberta’s economic engine can regain momentum.
As operations resume, Alberta businesses and industries are eagerly anticipating the restoration of normalcy, though challenges remain in clearing the backlog created by the stoppage.
