Forty percent less grain shipped through Vancouver, Prince Rupert and Thunder Bay in the first 29 weeks of 2021-22
The volume of western Canadian grain exports, already 40 percent behind last year’s pace, could soon hit another roadblock, pending a potential strike involving workers at Canadian Pacific Railway.
In a March 3 news release, Teamsters Canada Rail Conference (TCRC) confirmed that more than 3,000 CP employees including locomotive engineers, conductors, trainpersons and railyard workers voted in favour of strike action in late February.
Out of 3,062 ballots cast, 96.7 percent supported strike action.
TCRC members will be in a legal strike position as of one second after midnight on March 16, the TCRC said.
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Wages, benefits and pension entitlements were cited as the main stumbling blocks.
“The Teamsters Canada Rail Conference will continue to participate in the mediation process with the assistance of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service (FMCS)…,” the TCRC news release said.
The next meetings seeking a mediated settlement are scheduled to take place beginning March 11.
A potential strike at CP is the latest development in what could accurately be described as a terrible year for the western Canadian grain supply chain.
Western grain growers harvested a small and drought-plagued crop last fall, recording the lowest harvested volumes in nearly 20 years.
That should have resulted in a pressure-free grain shipping year for Canada’s two largest rail companies: CP and Canadian National Railway.
However, natural disasters in Western Canada, including wildfires in British Columbia and later, flooding in B.C.’s Interior and Lower Mainland, disrupted rail traffic, causing lengthy delays.
Through the first 29 weeks of the 2021-22 crop year, the amount of western Canadian grain shipped through Vancouver, Prince Rupert and Thunder Bay was 40 percent below same-period volumes in the 2020-21 crop year, data from Canada’s Grain Monitoring Program shows.
As of Feb. 19, crop-year-to-date export volumes were down 41 percent in Vancouver, 55 percent in Prince Rupert and 24 percent in Thunder Bay, according to the GMP’s latest weekly report, released March 3.
Mark Hemmes, president of Edmonton-based Quorum Corp., said railway performance has not been able to rebound from the disruption that occurred in late 2021.
“The floods (in mid-November)… basically killed all of the traffic into Vancouver for a couple of weeks and ever since then, it’s like the railways haven’t been able to recover,” Hemmes said.
“We haven’t really seen a big recovery since then, so volumes have been lower than demand.”
Hemmes said March 3 that both CN and CP were 10 weeks running with “less than optimal” car order fulfillment rates. Car cycle times in January were “horrendous,” he added.
“In the Prince Rupert corridor, it was over 29 days — numbers like I’ve never seen before — and in Vancouver they were really high as well,” Hemmes said.
“When you think about it proportionally, usually by the end of February, we should have seen between 56 and 60 percent of the crop moved, but this year we’re at slightly less than 50 percent.”
“The bad news is we’re further behind than where we (would)normally be proportionally. The good news is because it’s a smaller crop, the chance of recovery before the end of the crop year is a lot better.”
Hemmes said relatively slow producer deliveries — in the range of 500 tonnes per week — have picked up considerably over the past couple of weeks, pushing commercial grain inventories at country elevator locations to about 75 percent of working capacity.
By comparison, western port terminal inventories as of late February were still relatively low at 51 percent of working capacity.
“One of the things we watch really carefully … is the balance of stocks between country elevators and port terminals,” Hemmes said.
“Ideally, they should be equal…. When you see that imbalance, it tells you something’s wrong between the country and the port.
“The railways have had their challenges in the last few months. One would have hoped that they would have gotten it together by now, but I guess they need more time.”
The potential strike at CP is the latest in a long and growing list of railway challenges.
In a March 3 email to The Western Producer, CP said it has an excellent track record of successful collective bargaining with its unions.
Despite that, the TCRC has relied on federal conciliation in eight of nine collective bargaining negotiations at CP since 1993, the company added.
“We have offered a fair and balanced agreement, including wage increases, for a two-year collective agreement, and have agreed to 20 union demands on benefits and work rules in order to achieve labour certainty and stability …
“The TCRC leadership, however, appears poised to force a shutdown of the essential rail supply chain.”
CP said a work stoppage of any duration would impact virtually all commodities.
