The rail stoppage has locked out 9,300 rail workers and is set to take rail traffic to a near standstill today, affecting communities that rely on rail.
For some communities that involves bringing in materials for mills and plants, while others need to ship out commodities like crops or other resources.
Estevan MLA and Minister of Highways Lori Carr says that the stoppage will have a big effect on Saskatchewan's economy.
"It's really disappointing that this is happening. The rail stoppage will have a cascading revenue loss for the provincial economy as the production slowdown or shutdown occurs, as well as loss of employment. That's not just employment in the rail sector, it's going to have a direct effect on jobs right across our economy as they can't get their goods to market and they possibly have to stop producing, income will be affected to a lot of people and revenues to the province will be affected."
The southeast will particularly be affected with the ag community so strong in the area which is reliant on the rail network.
"Agriculture is so important to not just Saskatchewan but to the constituency of Estevan and area," said Carr. "The shutdown could cause significant backlogs leading to spoilage and financial losses for producers."
"I mean the rail has shut down, so the elevator network in the Prairies would fill to capacity within approximately 7 to 10 days which would stop cash flow for farmers until the railways reopen. They are not able to clear that grain to the elevators, the spaces will fill, and the farmer's inability to deliver grain to terminals could lead to grain shortage issues for some farms as harvest progresses. They have contracts they need to meet, they have people who are waiting for those products."
Carr says she's disappointed the federal government didn't consider rail an essential service and is hoping for federal intervention.
"It's really disappointing that rail is not considered an essential service in the Dominion of Canada, so many of our products go by rail, and with Saskatchewan being a landlocked province, we really don't have a lot of choices on how we send our products out."
"So I'm really hoping that the federal government finds some way to intervene while allowing the bargaining process to still continue between the employer and the employee, but not shutting down the economy of Canada at the same time."