CN, CPKC lockouts leave Exo scrambling to find alternatives for Montreal commuters

Article content

The lockouts of rail workers across the country could turn out to have only a short-term impact for Montreal train commuters, after Federal Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon said Thursday he will ask the Canada Industrial Relations Board to impose final, binding arbitration and order CN and CPKC railways to resume operations.

The lockouts, imposed at 12:01 a.m. Thursday, shut down three of Exo’s commuter rail lines that use CPKC railways.

Article content

Montreal’s commuter train authority, Exo, said it had no choice but to bring service on Line 11 (Vaudreuil/Hudson), Line 12 (St-Jérôme) and Line 14 (Candiac) to a halt because of the shutdown.

In an interview Thursday morning, spokesperson Catherine Maurice said the authority tried to communicate with clients as best as possible this week but also had to work around the uncertainty of when or if the shutdown would happen.

Maurice said she believes the message mostly got across. At the Ste-Catherine station in St-Constant Thursday morning, for example, only about 40 commuters were present, she said. The parking lot serving the station has spots for 800 cars.

About 21,000 rides per day are taken on the three affected lines. The shutdown did not affect two Exo lines that use CN tracks — Mont-St-Hilaire and Mascouche — as CN’s rail traffic controllers are still on the job. It also did not affect Via Rail routes in and out of Montreal.

Exo has said it is working on having alternative measures in place as of Monday if the lockout continues.

Asked why it planned measures for Monday but not the rest of this week, Maurice again said the uncertainty of the shutdown complicated matters. And usually, fewer people use the service on Thursday and Friday, she added.

Article content

Article content

“We were faced with a work conflict that wasn’t yet confirmed, and putting in place a shuttle bus service  —  finding drivers, finding buses  —  takes a fair amount of time,” Maurice said.

Exo instead focused on having measures in place for Monday, she added, which coincides with back-to-school and is expected to be busy.

The Montreal Port Authority, where nearly half the goods that pass through use one of the two rail networks, was also disrupted by the shutdown.

“As of 00:01, no CN or CPKC trains are running at the Port,” a spokesperson said on Thursday.

“Our truck and marine operations are continuing, and we are maintaining our contingency plan,” they added. “We were able to move all the goods concerned before CN and CPKC rail operations came to a standstill.”

At a rally outside Canadian National Railway headquarters in Montreal Thursday morning, rail workers said it wasn’t their choice to be rallying instead of working.

“It’s not our decision to be in the streets today,” said Teamsters Canada president François Laporte, “it’s the decision of Canadian National and Canadian Pacific to take the Canadian population, workers and exporters hostage and try to impose their laws and their views.”

Article content

The Chamber of Commerce of Metropolitan Montreal stressed the economic impact a prolonged rail stoppage could have.

“In an already difficult economic context, this shutdown will quickly lead to shortages and price hikes, jeopardizing businesses and jobs,” president Michel Leblanc said in a statement.

“After (labour disputes) at the ports of Montreal and Vancouver, this new episode is weakening our companies and fuelling uncertainty among our economic partners as to Canada’s reliability as a place to do business,” Leblanc added.

Quebec’s Conseil du patronat, meanwhile, which represents business owners and employers in the province, also blamed the federal government for its role in the shutdown.

“The federal government cannot be surprised or disappointed; it is partly to blame, as this is the third dispute to paralyze supply chains since the election of the Liberal Party of Canada,” president and CEO Karl Blackburn said in a statement.

“The government has the tools to avert this catastrophic situation by requesting binding arbitration and implementing a long-term solution,” Blackburn added, “such as broadening the notion of essential services provided for in the law, in order to take into account the vital role of supply chain players.”

With files from La Presse Canadienne.

Article content

Article content