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Concern continues to grow with the labor dispute at BC ports between the International Longshore and Warehouse Union and the BC Maritime Employers Association.
Union workers hit the picket lines on Saturday, while the BCMEA released a statement Monday saying it had gone as far as possible on its core issues.
David Przednowek, the assistant vice president of grain for CN Rail, says they are monitoring the situation closely, adding they're hoping for a positive outcome.
"It's very fair to say that the mere threat of a labor disruption could create significant impacts on shippers' decision to use Canada's ports. And of course, Vancouver is the most critical ports in Canada for imports and exports. At this point, we're very closely monitoring. CN remains committed to the safe and sustainable movement of its customer's goods, and we'll take steps to help mitigate as much as possible, any disruption should they occur.
He notes it's important that any potential work stoppage would not impact employees required to service grain vessels, and that's part of the Canada labor code.
"So that would be bulk grain vessels of course. You could have potential impacts to containerized grain traffic."
Overall, grain movement has been slow over the last few weeks for CN with the impact of the wildfires.
Przednowek says they've gone from issues related to wildfires and extreme dryness to the other extreme with heavy rains in parts of Northern Alberta.
"And that's created conditions that are conducive to washouts and flood outs. We have had some impacts on and off to our operations on certain subdivisions that feed into the main line or the main line itself because of flooding. So we've been working through those on and off. For the most part, rains remain very fluid, but you got to closely watch that kind of situation. That's just ongoing here because it's not just right after the heavy rainfall event. You know, you can get the potential for sinkholes and other washouts can occur depending on what's going on. "