CHAT News File Photo

By Chris Brown

Beef producers worried about feeding livestock if CP Rail dispute drags on

Mar 21, 2022 | 4:08 PM

A beef industry group is expressing serious concerns about the impact the CP Rail work stoppage will have on the welfare of animals.

Alberta Beef Producers is calling on the provincial government to demand action from Ottawa.

“We’re here now. The countdown is on as producers are unable to bring in feed and begin to deplete stored feed. We are less than two weeks away from not being able to feed our animals,” says Dr. Melanie Wowk, ABP chair.

About 3,000 CP Rail conductors, engineers and train and yard workers at hit picket lines Sunday after the company and the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference union. were unable to come to terms on a new deal.

ABP is asking Premier Jason Kenney to urgently and repeatedly request that the federal government immediately declare rail services essential and invoke “back to work” legislation until the message is heard.

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Brodie Haugan, rancher and ABP finance chair, says the labour dispute adds another unknown level of risk to an already devastating year.

“Like most producers, we operate on very small margins and this work stoppage could have detrimental impacts that are out of our control,” he says.