The Alberta government is calling on the Trudeau government to recall Parliament and order striking CN rail workers back to work..“CN Rail regularly ships in excess of 170,000 barrels of Western Canadian oil per day. Any disruption in shipments would have serious consequences for an economy that is already dealing with severe bottlenecks due to cancelled and delayed pipelines. Alberta cannot see further restrictions on our ability to export our product,” said Alberta Energy Minister Sonya Savage said in a statement..“Parliament is scheduled to return on Dec. 5. Unfortunately, even this short wait could result in serious damage not just to the Alberta economy, but to the Canadian economy as a whole. We call on the Prime Minister to immediately call back Parliament to enact emergency back-to-work legislation for CN Rail.”.Agriculture and Forestry Devin Dreeshen echoed the call..“Alberta farmers depend on rail to get their world-class products to market. We have seen the severe consequences of rail backlogs before. Farmers don’t need the added pain from compounding rail delays, especially after this difficult harvest. Now is the time to act,” Dreeshen said..Ben Brunnen, of the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, said it was very worried about the strike..“The oil industry is concerned about any developments that can negatively impact the availability of rail capacity, particularly in light of the current shortage of available pipeline capacity relative to oil production in western Canada. We will be monitoring such developments carefully to assess their potential impacts on Canada’s global competitiveness” he said in a statement..About 3,000 workers of Canadian National Railway, the country’s largest railroad operator, went on strike on Tuesday, Teamsters Canada said..“Conductors, trainperson and yard workers at Canadian National Railway are now officially on strike,” the union said in a tweet..Federal Labour Minister Patty Hajdu said the government is hopeful the two sides will reach an agreement.
