News broke on Friday that federal Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon was asking the Canada Industrial Relations Board to order the Canadian Union of Postal Workers back to work if the board agreed with his determination there was an impasse in negotiations. If the board agrees with his assessment, it would see the striking employees return to their jobs, and work under the existing collective agreements until this coming May.
The announcement came while Souris-Moose Mountain MP Dr. Robert Kitchen was speaking with Discover Estevan for an interview on a separate topic. He learned of the news at the same time as journalists and was able to provide his thoughts on the situation.
"I know that’ll be a huge weight off of many of my constituents,” Kitchen said as his first reaction to the news. He noted a number of small businesses in his constituency rely on Canada Post, and the suspension of all deliveries during the strike has had impacts on them.
He also noted that a number of people have had to postpone, reschedule, or cancel altogether plans for trips due to passports not being able to be delivered.
“Hopefully those things will be very welcomed by Canadians, and we can see some of those issues be resolved quickly,” Kitchen added.
MacKinnon had previously stated that the federal government would not be intervening in the strike, so this morning's announcement caught Kitchen by surprise.
“There was no indication, that I was aware of, that there would be any changes to that,” Kitchen stated. “It caught me by surprise.”
The CIRB announced that Canada Post workers have been ordered to go back to work tomorrow.