TORONTO — Ottawa is prepared to table back-to-work legislation to end the strike at Canadian Pacific, federal Labour Minister Lisa Raitt said Wednesday as she urged both sides to keep talking to reach a deal.
“This morning I have already put on notice a bill to ensure that we are in the position to be able to introduce legislation,” Raitt said.
“If we want to we have the ability to introduce legislation at the first opportunity on Monday.”
A prolonged strike would cost the Canadian economy an estimated $540 million a week, she said in Ottawa.
“We want to make sure the effect on the economy is being brought to people’s attention and that we’re keeping it in mind as it proceeds.”
Canadian Pacific has suspended rail freight service across the country but commuter trains in several large cities that use CP track continue to operate amid a strike by some 4,500 engineers, conductors and others.
The workers, represented by the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference, walked off the job just after midnight after the two sides were unable to reach an agreement despite talks that continued until the deadline.
“We’ve always said that the best solution is one that the parties reach themselves,” said Raitt, who added the parties are “very close” to a deal.
“So we strongly urge that the parties stay at the table, that they continue to negotiate, and that they reach an agreement themselves.”
Both the union and CP spokesman Ed Greenberg have said the negotiations would continue Wednesday.
“We have made every reasonable effort to get a settlement,” Teamsters vice-president Doug Finnson said in a statement posted on the union website.
“Every union member knows how important the outstanding issues are,” Finnson added. “We will not walk away from the negotiation table.”
Major points of contention are pensions, some work rules and fatigue management, he said.
The two sides had met with Raitt on Tuesday morning and continued negotiations throughout the day.
The strike halts shipments of grain, fertilizer, coal and other goods Canadian Pacific (TSX:CP) moves along nearly 24,000 kilometres of track in Canada and the United States.
“As reported, the union has withdrawn its services and, as a result, CP has successfully executed the safe and structured shutdown of its freight train operations in Canada,” Greenberg said in a statement.
“In addition to customer and supply chain impacts, the suspension of CP’s freight service will also impact many of the connecting railways with whom we do business,” he added.
Both sides had said Tuesday that commuter trains in Montreal, Vancouver and Toronto would keep running in the event of a strike.
GO Transit’s website confirmed Wednesday that there had been no disruption to passenger trains that use CP track along the Milton line west of Toronto.
Greenberg confirmed that commuter service also continued without disruption in Vancouver and Montreal.
Via Rail said Tuesday that two inter-city Via Rail routes in Ontario that use CP infrastructure would likely be affected: between Sudbury and White River and the Brockville-to-Ottawa segment of the Toronto-Ottawa route.
The strike comes at a time of major changes at Canada’s second-biggest railway.
A bruising months-long proxy fight with the railway’s biggest shareholder culminated last week in Fred Green’s exit as CEO.
New York hedge fund Pershing Square Capital Management argued the railway was lagging its peers under Green’s leadership and that a change in CEO was necessary.
Green and five other board members stepped down hours before the company’s annual general meeting last Thursday after it became evident shareholders had voted overwhelmingly for director nominees on Pershing’s slate.
The Teamsters’ Finnson said the union had not yet met with Green’s interim replacement, Stephen Tobias, but that the management shakeup had not affected the bargaining process one way or the other.
The Teamsters Canada Rail Conference represents some 220 rail traffic controllers and 4,200 locomotive engineers, conductors, trainpersons and yardmen whose collective agreement expired on Dec. 31, 2011.