The Grain Growers of Canada estimate the initial impact for grain farmers of the dual work stoppage by both of the country’s major railways is over $43 million dollars a day.
Those estimates are for the first week alone, and GGC believes the losses would be expected to escalate to $50 million dollars a day the week after and beyond if the stoppages continue.
Gordon Ellis has farmed east of the Town of Olds since 1986 and he the Region 2 Delegate with Alberta Grains. Ellis notes there are 45,000 farmers across Canada that are involved on the grain side. He says “farmers in Alberta Grains, ultimately, I think like to see the government intervene. We’d sort of lobbied that the ag sector should be treated as essential and a lot of the supporting industries around that as well. So if the government could get the two parties talking and a solution found, the sooner the better.”
If the work stoppage goes on for more than a couple days, Ellis was asked what other options there would be for farmers? He says “it is kind of unprecedented, like I said, we haven’t seen both rail systems stop at the same time. I guess farmers going to have to pivot, maybe delay harvest somewhat or just find different storage solutions until the elevator system can get some capacity back.”
Mike Flynn, Executive Director with Alberta Grains, issued a statement this afternoon following the latest developments in the rail work stoppage. Flynn calls the announcement for binding arbitration invoked by Minister Steven MacKinnon “a positive development.”
He pointed out that “every day of disruption has a profound impact on Alberta Farmers at this critical time of year. We continue to encourage all parties involved to work towards restoring rail service as soon as possible to minimize the impacts on Alberta’s agriculture sector.”