Canadian Government Steps In to End Rail Shutdown

The Canadian government intervened in the freight rail shutdown, forcing the railways and labor union into arbitration and effectively ending the stoppage that had begun less than 17 hours earlier. Labor Minister Steven MacKinnon ordered the parties to binding arbitration and expected the trains to resume operations within days in the “critically vital sector.”

The shutdown began just after midnight Thursday when the country’s two largest railway operators, Canadian National Railway (CN) and Canadian Pacific Kansas City (CPKC), locked out nearly 10,000 employees. The railway operators and Teamsters union had been negotiating a new labor contract for months without reaching an agreement. 

A lengthy freight rail stoppage would impact economies beyond the Canadian borders. In 2022, the country exported $279 billion (C$380 billion) by rail. The US imports lumber, oil, and other resources used in the construction industry. Sixty percent of the $23 billion (C$31.8 billion) in lumber transported out of Canada in 2023 was by rail (Statistics Canada).

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