Companies brace for ripple effects

Credit rating agency warns rail stoppage could cost Canadian economy $341 million per day

- CHRISTOPHER REYNOLDS

MONTREAL The end of the shutdown at Canada’s two major railways came too late for the workers at Conifex Timber.

Some 250 employees felt the impact when the company cut the operating schedule in half at its sawmill in Mackenzie, B.C., starting Monday — the day the work stoppage on the tracks wraps up.

Despite the briefness of the rail standstill, Conifex’s reduction to one shift per day from two will last “for the foreseeable future,” said chief operating officer Andrew McLellan last week.

“It could be some time before our shipment levels normalize,” said Ken Shields, chair and CEO at Conifex, in a phone interview.

Industries across the country are feeling the pain of a shutdown that fell far short of catastrophic levels, but whose ripple effects continue to play out in lost revenues and customers and a bruised national reputation.