GHY Tradelines

(Dow Jones/WSJ)

Canadian Labor Minister Lisa Raitt said it is unlikely freight service at Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd. (CP) will resume Thursday due to delay tactics by opposition politicians in the upper house on a bill to end the railroad’s eight-day strike.

The Conservative government used its majority in Canada’s lower house, along with a series of parliamentary tactics that limited debate, to get a back-to-work bill approved early Wednesday. Raitt introduced the bill Monday with the hope rail service would resume Thursday.

But she acknowledged a Thursday restart now appears unlikely as Liberal Party members in the senate aren’t willing to agree to an expedited debate.

“We cannot resume service on Thursday” as long as there is a delay in the senate, she told reporters following the weekly meeting of the Conservative Party caucus. “These [Liberal] senators have determined they are not going to help us with back-to-work legislation, so it is on their conscience.” Read more here.
 

(Lee-Anne Goodman – The Canadian Press)

Four U.S. senators are urging the Obama administration to swiftly greenlight a new customs and immigration facility at Montreal’s Central Station, a move that would vastly improve rail service between Quebec’s biggest metropolis, New York City, the state of Vermont and the Washington, D.C., region.

The senators have sent a letter to two of Obama’s highest-ranking cabinet secretaries stressing the importance of the hub.

“The economic links between Canada and the states of Vermont and New York are vital, and there is great potential to make them stronger still,” they wrote to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Janet Napolitano, the homeland security czar. “A smoother customs experience in Montreal will spur job creation and economic opportunities on both sides of the border.” Read more here.
 

(London Free Press – David Akin)

The federal government is tapping a high-powered panel of blue-chip Canadian business executives to tell it what to do next when it comes to free trade.

International Trade Minister Ed Fast said Tuesday the advisory panel will act as a sounding board as the government develops what it calls its “global commerce strategy.” The broad thrust of that strategy is to continue find new ways to wean the country’s economy off its reliance on American consumers.

“Our goal is to have a new, fully operational global commerce strategy in place sometime in 2013, one that will guide Canada’s trade priorities well into the future,” Fast said in a speech here Tuesday. Read more here.