3 Maritime senators ask PM to call Parliament, develop backup plan and mitigate impact of CN strike

Three senators from the Maritimes have written a letterto Prime Minister Justin Trudeau asking him to summon Parliament beforehis speech from the throne on Dec.5, in an effort to help resolve the CN strike.

P.E.I. Sen.Diane Griffin, NovaScotia Sen. Stephen Greene and New Brunswick Sen. David Richards sent the letter to Ottawa on Monday.

About 3,200 CN employees, members of the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference union, walked off the job last Tuesday. They've been without a contract since July 23, and say they're concerned about long hours, fatigue and what they consider dangerous working conditions.

Griffin said she and her colleagues wanted to bring more attention to the issue in Eastern Canada.

"We're hearing a lot on the national media about the impact that it's having on Western Canada and Central Canada," she said.

"We're saying there's a major impact here in the Maritimes."

Loss of product, jobs

Concerns expressed in the letter includehow a limited supply of propane wouldimpact the region.

"Drying grainwill not occur or will be cut back and that's going to mean loss of crops and loss of quality of product," said Griffin in an interview with CBC.

Griffin said the strike also has the ability to affect the Islandbeyondthe agricultureindustry.

"Hospitals and other institutions rely on propane either for heating, or for cooking fuel, or for sterilizing implements."

She said her staff has been in contact with a number of sources on the Island to get a handle on how bad the situation is.

"Alot of people may not realize it because of course we don't have trains anymore on Prince Edward Island but a lot of productscome into Moncton and are off-loaded onto trucks to come to Prince Edward Island," she said.

"We are going to feel the impact. We're at the end of the line so it's going to impact us in terms of our imports but it will also impact us in terms of our exports."

Thisstrike if it goes on any amount of time is going to affect the livelihood of quite a largenumber of people.- Sen. Diane Griffin

Griffinsaid the strike could also have a devastating effect onports in the Maritimes such as Halifax and SaintJohn.

"Out-of-country shippers will simply go further southto New York or Connecticut ports and use CP rail connections in order to get their products up into Quebec and Ontario," she said.

"That will have a bad effect on both Halifax and SaintJohn and those are major ports.They're major employers."

Griffin said she and the other senators are asking Ottawa to develop a backup plan in case an agreement is not reached soon.

"Thisstrike if it goes on any amount of time is going to affect the livelihood of quite a largenumber of people."

Griffinsaid as of right now, she's been told thatthere are no plans to call Parliament before Dec.5.

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