While the CP Rail work stoppage has businesses calling for back-to-work legislation, the Liberal government and opposition MPs avoided discussing the idea as they debated next steps in the House of Commons Monday.
In question period, Conservative MP Marilyn Gladu said the agriculture and automotive sectors are being affected by the work stoppage already.
“What is the government’s plan to immediately resolve this dispute?” she asked Labour Minister Seamus O’Regan.
O’Regan acknowledged that the work stoppage is happening at a bad time, given the supply chain woes already affecting the Canadian economy. He said the ongoing negotiations are the best option to bring the dispute to an end.
“Every day that goes by, for farmers and manufacturers in this country particularly, is an hour or a day too long and I think that the parties at the table know that,” O’Regan said in the House.
“They have an enormous responsibility to Canadians to negotiate an agreement that protects supply chains that Canadians depend on. They are working hard. No one has left the table. Our party believes that the best deals are reached at the table.”
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh told reporters in Ottawa on Monday that employing back-to-work legislation in a “cavalier” way would undermine the right of workers to use the ability to strike to improve working conditions.
“The fact that it’s already something that’s being raised before workers have a chance to negotiate sends a message to employers that they don’t have to negotiate,” Singh said. “And that’s wrong.”
Locking out employees
CP Rail shut down Canadian operations Sunday after a work stoppage began just before midnight. More than 3,000 conductors, engineers, train and yard workers were picketing Sunday.
The company and the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference, the union representing the workers, started negotiating a new contract last September. The union said the main issues are wages, pensions and aspects of working conditions — such as not forcing employees to take federally mandated reset days when they’re away from home.
Employees voted 97 per cent in favour of a strike March 3 and were in a legal strike position as of March 16 — the same day the company issued an ultimatum stating that a deal be would have to be reached by March 20 at midnight to prevent a lockout.
Federal mediators joined the talks March 11. Just before midnight Sunday, the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference said in a media statement that the company was locking employees out.
Rail workers picket in Regina on March 19, 2022 (CBC / Radio-Canada)
The company and the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference blamed each other for causing the work stoppage, though both also said they were still talking with federal mediators.
Several industry groups have raised the alarm about the potential economic impacts of a CP Rail shutdown at a time when many businesses are dealing with supply chain difficulties caused by the pandemic, extreme weather in B.C. and the recent blockades of border crossings by protesters. That’s putting O’Regan under heavy pressure to legislate CP Rail workers back to work.
“We’re asking for all parties to find a very, very quick resolution,” said Brian Kingston, president and chief executive of the Canadian Vehicle Manufacturers’ Association.
“We appreciate the fact that they’re back at the table today … That said, if it becomes evident that there is simply no negotiated outcome possible, we would encourage the government to look at other options.”
Concerns about fertilizer shipments
Canada’s agriculture industry is particularly worried. On Monday, leaders of the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association and the National Cattle Feeders’ Association were in Ottawa urging the government to bring an end to the work stoppage they said could devastate their industry.
“If these trains don’t run, we’ve got maybe two weeks of feed left,” said Cattlemen’s Association president Bob Lowe. He said western Canadian cattle producers have been relying on shipments of feed by rail from the U.S. this year in the wake of last summer’s drought and resultant widespread feed shortage.
“There is no Plan B. We have no other source of feed.”
“We are, in Canada, about four to six weeks from seeding season … which means that farmers may not get all the fertilizer they need,” said Fertilizer Canada chief executive Karen Proud.
Proud said a fertilizer shortage could cause food prices to spike, given the impact the war in Ukraine has had already on global fertilizer supplies and the prices of wheat and other grains.
Canadian fertilizer companies like Nutrien rely on rail to get their product to market. Fertilizer Canada chief executive Karen Proud says the industry wants to see back-to-work legislation. (Guy Quenneville/CBC)
Proud said the fertilizer industry believes it’s time to introduce back-to-work legislation.
“We certainly respect the collective bargaining process but clearly these two groups haven’t been able to reach an agreement. And now the government needs to act immediately,” she said.
“Some of our members who produce fertilizer don’t have the storage capacity if product isn’t being shipped out on the rails, so we’re looking at being days away from potentially having to shut down our production of fertilizer.”
Goldy Hyder, president and CEO of the Business Council of Canada, said U.S. lawmakers and counterparts — including White House officials — have been worried for weeks about a possible labour dispute.
“I expect to hear a lot about it,” Hyder said, ten days after an earlier visit to Capitol Hill during which he heard similar concerns.
“There’s a genuine risk here of Canada being seen as unreliable at a time when reliability is most valued and needed.”
The damage to Canada’s reputation could be lasting, coming as it does on the heels of last month’s week-long shutdown of the Ambassador Bridge between Detroit and Windsor, Ont., he added.
TOKYO (AP) — Japanese technology group SoftBank swung back to profitability in the July-September quarter, boosted by positive results in its Vision Fund investments.
Tokyo-based SoftBank Group Corp. reported Tuesday a fiscal second quarter profit of nearly 1.18 trillion yen ($7.7 billion), compared with a 931 billion yen loss in the year-earlier period.
Quarterly sales edged up about 6% to nearly 1.77 trillion yen ($11.5 billion).
SoftBank credited income from royalties and licensing related to its holdings in Arm, a computer chip-designing company, whose business spans smartphones, data centers, networking equipment, automotive, consumer electronic devices, and AI applications.
The results were also helped by the absence of losses related to SoftBank’s investment in office-space sharing venture WeWork, which hit the previous fiscal year.
WeWork, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2023, emerged from Chapter 11 in June.
SoftBank has benefitted in recent months from rising share prices in some investment, such as U.S.-based e-commerce company Coupang, Chinese mobility provider DiDi Global and Bytedance, the Chinese developer of TikTok.
SoftBank’s financial results tend to swing wildly, partly because of its sprawling investment portfolio that includes search engine Yahoo, Chinese retailer Alibaba, and artificial intelligence company Nvidia.
SoftBank makes investments in a variety of companies that it groups together in a series of Vision Funds.
The company’s founder, Masayoshi Son, is a pioneer in technology investment in Japan. SoftBank Group does not give earnings forecasts.
Shopify Inc. executives brushed off concerns that incoming U.S. President Donald Trump will be a major detriment to many of the company’s merchants.
“There’s nothing in what we’ve heard from Trump, nor would there have been anything from (Democratic candidate) Kamala (Harris), which we think impacts the overall state of new business formation and entrepreneurship,” Shopify’s chief financial officer Jeff Hoffmeister told analysts on a call Tuesday.
“We still feel really good about all the merchants out there, all the entrepreneurs that want to start new businesses and that’s obviously not going to change with the administration.”
Hoffmeister’s comments come a week after Trump, a Republican businessman, trounced Harris in an election that will soon return him to the Oval Office.
On the campaign trail, he threatened to impose tariffs of 60 per cent on imports from China and roughly 10 per cent to 20 per cent on goods from all other countries.
If the president-elect makes good on the promise, many worry the cost of operating will soar for companies, including customers of Shopify, which sells e-commerce software to small businesses but also brands as big as Kylie Cosmetics and Victoria’s Secret.
These merchants may feel they have no choice but to pass on the increases to customers, perhaps sparking more inflation.
If Trump’s tariffs do come to fruition, Shopify’s president Harley Finkelstein pointed out China is “not a huge area” for Shopify.
However, “we can’t anticipate what every presidential administration is going to do,” he cautioned.
He likened the uncertainty facing the business community to the COVID-19 pandemic where Shopify had to help companies migrate online.
“Our job is no matter what comes the way of our merchants, we provide them with tools and service and support for them to navigate it really well,” he said.
Finkelstein was questioned about the forthcoming U.S. leadership change on a call meant to delve into Shopify’s latest earnings, which sent shares soaring 27 per cent to $158.63 shortly after Tuesday’s market open.
The Ottawa-based company, which keeps its books in U.S. dollars, reported US$828 million in net income for its third quarter, up from US$718 million in the same quarter last year, as its revenue rose 26 per cent.
Revenue for the period ended Sept. 30 totalled US$2.16 billion, up from US$1.71 billion a year earlier.
Subscription solutions revenue reached US$610 million, up from US$486 million in the same quarter last year.
Merchant solutions revenue amounted to US$1.55 billion, up from US$1.23 billion.
Shopify’s net income excluding the impact of equity investments totalled US$344 million for the quarter, up from US$173 million in the same quarter last year.
Daniel Chan, a TD Cowen analyst, said the results show Shopify has a leadership position in the e-commerce world and “a continued ability to gain market share.”
In its outlook for its fourth quarter of 2024, the company said it expects revenue to grow at a mid-to-high-twenties percentage rate on a year-over-year basis.
“Q4 guidance suggests Shopify will finish the year strong, with better-than-expected revenue growth and operating margin,” Chan pointed out in a note to investors.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 12, 2024.
TORONTO – RioCan Real Estate Investment Trust says it has cut almost 10 per cent of its staff as it deals with a slowdown in the condo market and overall pushes for greater efficiency.
The company says the cuts, which amount to around 60 employees based on its last annual filing, will mean about $9 million in restructuring charges and should translate to about $8 million in annualized cash savings.
The job cuts come as RioCan and others scale back condo development plans as the market softens, but chief executive Jonathan Gitlin says the reductions were from a companywide efficiency effort.
RioCan says it doesn’t plan to start any new construction of mixed-use properties this year and well into 2025 as it adjusts to the shifting market demand.
The company reported a net income of $96.9 million in the third quarter, up from a loss of $73.5 million last year, as it saw a $159 million boost from a favourable change in the fair value of investment properties.
RioCan reported what it says is a record-breaking 97.8 per cent occupancy rate in the quarter including retail committed occupancy of 98.6 per cent.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 12, 2024.
