Canada’s rail system was under stress Tuesday as Via Rail cancelled passenger service on key routes and Canadian National Railway Co. warned it will be forced to close “significant” parts of its freight network unless blockades impeding its lines are removed.
Via Rail cancelled service on its Montreal-Toronto and Toronto-Ottawa routes because of a blockade near Belleville, Ont., in support of opponents of the Coastal GasLink pipeline project that crosses the traditional territory of the Wet’suwet’en First Nation in northwestern B.C.
“Although we remain hopeful that a resolution will be reached, in view of the current uncertainty, VIA Rail is cancelling all departures until Thursday end of day on the Montreal-Toronto and Toronto-Ottawa routes, in both directions,” Via spokeswoman Marie-Anna Murat said in an email.
A blockade near New Hazelton, B.C., means normal rail activities are also being interrupted between Prince Rupert and Prince George, she said.
Via Rail’s announcement followed the warning from CN, which has halted more than 150 freight trains since Thursday evening, when demonstrators set up the blockades in B.C. and Ontario.
The Montreal-based railway said Monday that long-distance freight shipments in Central and Eastern Canada were already at a virtual standstill.
Chief executive JJ Ruest stressed the limited parking space in its network, with traffic backed up from Halifax to Windsor, Ont., and in parts of B.C. approaching Prince Rupert.
“CN will have no choice but to temporarily discontinue service in key corridors unless the blockades come to an end,” he said in a statement Tuesday.
“The impact is also being felt beyond Canada’s borders and is harming the country’s reputation as a stable and viable supply chain partner.”
The ongoing blockades are near Belleville, Ont., and New Hazleton in B.C.’s northern interior, while demonstrations cropped up Tuesday in locations ranging from the Halifax port to the B.C. legislature.
The Canadian Chamber of Commerce called on all levels of government and police to work together to bring an immediate end to the blockades and to restore all rail service.
“From propane to grain and food and consumer items, Canada’s supply chains are being severely damaged by the continuing interruptions to Canada’s rail services by protesters,” the chamber said on Twitter.
“The rail system affects the entire Canadian economy and Canadians everywhere, including people trying to get to and from work. They must be allowed to continue to serve the thousands of businesses that depend on them.”
Industry groups expressed concern about the shutdown as shipments to and from the U.S. and China are delayed or cancelled.
“It’s a real crisis,” said Joel Neuheimer, head of international trade with the Forest Products Association of Canada.
Wood, pulp and paper producers have lost tens of millions of dollars so far, he said.
“We ship massive amounts of pulp to the United States and to places like Asia, so big negative impacts there,” Neuheimer said in a phone interview.
“We have members whose customers aren’t placing orders right now in the U.S. because they know that it’s not going to get there as soon as it needs to get there.”
Olin Corp., a Missouri-based chemical maker with a facility near Trois-Rivieres, Que., cautioned Ottawa that its tight distribution schedule means the 50-odd Canadian companies it serves will soon stop receiving chlorine — used in part to treat drinking water — which it says is only shipped by rail.
“Olin is alarmed by the current freight rail situation in Canada, and we are concerned that customers and municipalities will not receive shipments of vital chemicals including chlorine within one week,” chairman and CEO John Fischer said in a letter to federal Transport Minister Marc Garneau on Tuesday.
The Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters Association, whose members typically load about 4,500 rail cars a day, is urging government officials to work with police to restore service on the tracks.
“In Canada there’s not really other alternatives to move stuff around. The highways and trucks — especially in Quebec and southern Ontario — are already at a very, very high utilization of available capacity,” association president Dennis Darby said in a phone interview.
Stakeholders from chemical companies to Dannon Yogurt called this week to raise concerns, he said. “They can’t get their stuff out.”
Garneau said he is working with the railways and his Ontario counterpart Caroline Mulroney to find a solution, and that blockage of tracks is “dangerous and illegal.”
Despite the countrywide impact, he underscored that responsibility for enforcing court injunctions against the anti-pipeline protesters lies with provincial politicians and police.
“Obviously we hope it’s going to be resolved, but it is up to the provinces to make those injunctions effective by taking action,” Garneau told reporters in Calgary. “It’s having an important impact on the economy of the country.”
Earlier Tuesday, Via Rail said 157 passenger trains have also been cancelled, affecting 24,500 travellers on its Montreal-Toronto, Ottawa-Toronto and Kingston-Toronto routes.
Ontario Provincial Police said officers are in talks with protesters behind a blockade that sits metres from the tracks, though not across them.
OPP spokesman Bill Dickson said an officer of the court read an injunction to the protesters Tuesday morning ordering them to abandon the blockade, which bisects Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory, about 20 kilometres east of Belleville.
While CN obtained the injunction on Friday, Tuesday marked the first time it was read aloud in accordance with court procedure, Dickson said.
Mohawks of the Bay of Quinte Chief R. Donald Maracle expressed solidarity with the Wet’suwet’en community in northwestern B.C. and called out actions by the RCMP, which has been enforcing a court injunction on the First Nation’s traditional territory and arresting those attempting to block access to the pipeline route.
“We call on both federal and provincial governments to demand the RCMP immediately reconsider how it addresses peaceful protests and demonstrations, and allow the opportunity for sound discussion with a common sense approach to achieve peaceful outcomes,” Maracle said in a statement.
Brendan Marshall, head of economic and northern affairs at the Mining Association of Canada, said buyers of natural resource products were as vulnerable as producers — some of whom are already curtailing production.
“If you’re a facility that’s reliant on rail service in order to get your product to a site, then it’s kind of like sand through the hourglass — when it runs out, the plant can’t work anymore,” he said.
— With files from Michelle McQuigge
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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.
