26 Story Idea? Email Paul.Nolan@Farms.com Better Farming | September 2024 contracts that get delivered off the combines during harvest, an enormous volume that needs to go. And now we’re going to have a strike, so this is kind of a worst-case scenario. It’s incredibly unfortunate timing.” With the CIRB ruling that TCRC members were authorized to strike as of Aug. 22, the potential strike was pushed into an even more damaging time. “As you can imagine, as we creep into August we’re starting to get to prime grain delivery time at the end of harvest,” says Sereda. “And there are some expectations that it may be an early harvest this year.” If a strike does run through harvest and shipping times, Hodson is concerned about farmers like himself having enough storage space to hold on to their grains until the strike is resolved. “How are you going to store that? Is there a potential for grain spoilage if you don’t have enough bins?” A further issue is not just the strike itself, but also the ‘catch-up’ period that follows the strike. After a strike is resolved, many commodities would be trying to get caught up at the same time, likely creating logjams in the system. “And if this is during harvest, it can really compound the problem,” says Hodson. “For example, the Jasper fire. It only shut down the railway for two days, but once it started, they were only running at half-speed. How long will that last? (Natural disasters) are going to happen. But it’s these other events that get frustrating.” While exports are the most obvious area of discussion, imports would also be affected. Hodson notes that, while not as high a percentage as the grain exports, a significant amount of fertilizer and propane are imported via rail. What can producers do? Hodson laments that there are few things that growers can do to insulate themselves from the impacts of a potential rail strike, other than simply having enough storage to hold on to your grain and hoping that it doesn’t spoil before the strike is over. With both railways potentially affected by the strike, there isn’t an alternative rail option, even for the small number of producers who would find it feasible to switch to the other. And even if farmers could somehow will a trucking company into existence on short notice, it would be economically impossible. “That’s why we have railways,” explains Hodson. “An overlying thing that concerns me as a farmer is we strive to produce a very high-quality product. It bothers me that our international reputation takes a hit every time there’s a strike and somebody can’t get the product they’ve bought from Canada. “There’s always alternatives; there’s always a lot of places they can buy from, and get it in a more timely manner if these strikes are going to prolong.” Leguee says that farmers have long memories, with talk of rail strikes dredging up painful memories of the railway labour disputes of 2013 and 2014. Unfortunately, the sellers and distributors who handle Canadian grains have similarly long memories. “We are not considered a reliable shipper anymore by most of our customers, and that’s extremely concerning,” says Leguee. “We’re a country that is close to the top 10 economies in the world and we can’t even get our products to market reliably. That’s really concerning for those of us in the export industry. “Not only does this hurt our reputation today – it’ll hurt our reputation for a long period of time.” While there is little that can be done on the farms themselves, Sereda encourages producers to get in touch with their local politicians about the issue. And every day that the railway is disrupted means several more days of backlog. “One day of backlog has reverberating effects on the entire supply chain, and it can’t be understated how much disruption, even a small break in service, causes,” says Sereda. “So we encourage our farmers to ask their local MPs and MLAs to advocate on their behalf for early intervention.” Sereda also points to mechanisms that the federal government can utilize under the Canadian Labour Code to intervene. “They obviously want to respect the collective bargaining process, and we understand that, but it has to be timely intervention in order to save the system from the same types of disruption that have hurt our reputation in past years.” “What we’re doing right now isn’t working,” adds Leguee emphatically. “We’re seeing these strikes come up basically every year, sometimes twice a year. “These strikes are a huge problem, but it doesn’t seem like our government takes them that seriously. Our country is as successful as it is because of exports – whether that’s food or energy or other products. All the wealth that we have built in this country comes from that. It doesn’t seem like the government is taking that as seriously as they should be. “It’s one of the most serious economic issues that faces this country.” BF Rail Strike Grain Impacts MATT JONES Matt Jones is a freelance writer with a specialization in trade publications. He lives in Fredericton, N.B., with a cat named Bowie. Jake Leguee Shannon Sereda Jonothan Hodson
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