The ongoing wildfire situation stretches from northern Ontario right across the prairies, with the threat to homes and communities and thousands of people being evacuated.
The Assistant Vice-President of Grain for CN, David Przednowek, says they are monitoring the situation very closely as their rail lines run through the north.
CN reports they've had some delays moving grain in and out of the Port at Thunder Bay but are also doing what they can to help with the wildfires.
He says CN is constantly checking with fire patrols and monitoring the weather conditions, as they need to operate through all sorts of densely forested areas.
"When we think about wildfires and grain movement, typically the focus is in the Western corridor. You know, grain shipments and shipments of other commodities to Vancouver and Prince Rupert because you have to go through Alberta and British Columbia. This year, where we've had the primary impact so far to date is in the eastern prairies. There have been fires in the West, but they have not been causing any significant delays."
He points out to get to Thunder Bay and points East, you have to go through Northern Ontario. There have been serious fires in eastern Manitoba and in northwestern Ontario that have affected the fluidity of the main line, we have been down. As of a couple of weeks ago, we would have had some delays running east to Thunder Bay and of course, coming from the east .
As a result of the wildfires, CN has been deploying their firefighting equipment Poseidon and Trident and other fire trains along the route.
He says we desperately need to see a good soaking rain from Ontario right through to British Columbia to not only help the wildfire situation, but the crops as well.
When it comes to overall grain movement on CN lines, Przednowek says for the month of May, they recorded a near record volume of shipments of grain and processed grain products out of Western Canada.
"Previous record was 2.54 million metric tons and as of June 3 we're sitting at 2.53 million metric tons. So just a whisker off the record by a little bit there. That's on the heels of a recorded March and a record April. "
He says the demand for grain movement held up pretty well through the month of May, but is starting to soften now.
"It softened of course with spring seeding coming on, and we're seeing adjustments in customer demand here going forward, as you get deeper into the summer and as less and less grain supplies are available with each week, that goes by. "