CN Rail has responded to a critical shortage of propane in Quebec and Ontario by committing a special 124 car train to ship the needed fuel from Alberta to distribution hubs across Eastern Canada, the Western Standard has learned from a CN source that spoke on conditions of anonymity..Propane shipments from Alberta to the rest of Canada have been halted due to strike action by the Teamsters Union that commenced Tuesday. The strike by rail workers has caused provincial governments across Canada – including Quebec and Alberta – to call on the federal government to introduce “back to work” legislation, outlawing the strike as a threat to the national economy..Alberta Premier Jason Kenney spoke on the issue to Quebec Premier François Legault, “We have technology that could guarantee you constant, stable access to propane and other fuels – they are called pipelines.”.Until 2014, the Cochin pipeline did, in fact, ship propane directly from Fort Saskatchewan, Alberta to Windsor, Ontario..The response by CN Rail to get propane to areas of the country facing shortages, however, may yet be frustrated by the Teamsters..The Western Standard’s source at CN said, “The folks who are on strike (conductors) are the ones who would be physically coupling and uncoupling the cars, lining switches, and setting hand brakes. The engineers who actually operate the locomotive are in a different union and not on strike.”.This means that while propane may likely be heading east from Alberta to Quebec, rail cars may remain stranded off CN Rail’s main line at switching yards, unable to move over feeder rail lines to customer facilities for distribution..The Western Standard will continue to update this story as more information becomes available.
