As rail shutdown looms, Freeland vows no tolerance for ‘self-inflicted wound’

It is “entirely unacceptable” for parties in a looming nationwide railway shutdown to risk sabotaging Canada’s economic progress, Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland says.

“It is entirely unacceptable for anyone to get in the way of that economic progress that we have all been making and that has been so hard-fought and so hard-won,” Freeland told reporters.

She said Canadians expect Canadian Pacific Kansas City Ltd., Canadian National and the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference to negotiate in good faith and reach a solution.

“Your customers expect that, your customers’ employees expect that, farmers … expect that. Canada and Canadians expect that,” she said.

“We cannot tolerate a self-inflicted wound.”

Freight trains across Canada could come to a grinding halt as soon as midnight on Wednesday with roughly 9,000 railway employees nearing a looming strike or lockout date.

The union representing thousands of workers at Canadian Pacific Kansas City Ltd. says it has served a 72-hour strike notice on the railway.

The Teamsters Canada Rail Conference issued a news release Sunday saying that unless the parties reach a last-minute agreement, workers will be off the job as of 12:01 a.m. eastern time Thursday.

Not long after the union’s statement, CN Rail issued a notice that it intends to lock workers out at that same time unless an agreement or binding arbitration is achieved.

Speaking earlier in the day, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Canadians across the country were counting on negotiators to reach a deal.

“This is an issue that we are following extremely closely and moving forward on in every way we can. The minister was just meeting with the two sides yesterday, and he continues to be in Calgary working on this,” Trudeau said.

Labour