MONTREAL, Feb 20 — Canada's public passenger rail service will temporarily lay off 1,000 employees due to a blockade sparked by pipeline protests, as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called the situation “unacceptable” yesterday.
“We know people are facing shortages, they're facing disruptions, they're facing layoffs — that's unacceptable,” Trudeau told Canada's lower house of Parliament.
For nearly two weeks, demonstrators have protested across Canada in solidarity with the Wet'suwet'en indigenous people in British Columbia, who are upset over a proposed gas pipeline that would go through their traditional lands.
With passenger and freight traffic having come to a halt in eastern Canada, the country's opposition is pressuring the prime minister to act quickly.
“This government is working extremely hard to resolve this situation,” Trudeau told the House of Commons.
On Tuesday, however, he urged against use of force to resolve the rail blockades, warning that acting in haste would not be helpful.
Protesters set up a new track barrier in the western city of Edmonton yesterday, as blockades continued in the east.
The rails are the backbone of the Canadian economy. Every year, goods worth more than C$300 billion (RM940 billion) are transported from one end of the vast country to the other by rail.
The announcement by Via Canada, the country's public passenger rail service, yesterday comes on the heels of a similar measure taken by Canadian National Railway Co (CN), which has temporarily laid off 450 personnel.
Conservative leader Andrew Scheer, meanwhile, denounced the situation as “two weeks of inaction and weakness.” — Reuters
