Nutrien to shut down Rocanville mine, blames CN strike

With just a month before Christmas, Nutrien dropped some tough news about its Rocanville potash mine on Monday.

The company is planning to shut down the mine for at least two weeks as of Dec. 2.

The Saskatoon-based company announced the shutdown and blamed it on the CN Rail strike, which started Tuesday. A spokesperson said the strike has caused problems like creating a backlog of product waiting to get to market.

In a media release, Nutrien president and CEO Chuck Magro said it’s disappointing the strike is adding further hardship to the agricultural sector.

“Any further disruption will be harmful to our business, the Canadian economy, and Canada’s competitive position and reputation as a reliable supplier of fertilizer and food. However, most concerning is the impact on our hundreds of employees for whom this creates great uncertainty and hardship leading up to the holiday season,” Magro said in the release.

Other Nutrien facilities have slowed down production to deal with the strike, but Nutrien said — with the way things worked out with the company’s network — Rocanville ended up having to shut down.

Nutrien is committed to having the mine shut down for two weeks, but the company will be monitoring the strike situation, and if the strike continues then the shutdown could go longer.

In September, the company announced a shutdown of up to eight weeks at its Allan, Lanigan, and Vanscoy potash mines in the fourth quarter of this year. Nutrien said those closures were in response to a short-term slowdown in global potash markets.

About 600 people are employed at the mine, and the company expects 550 people to be laid off for the duration of the shutdown. The company noted that employee notices were sent out Monday.

Town to weather the storm

Rocanville’s mayor said there’s never a good time for layoffs.

“Two weeks might be not too bad but anything after that, I’m sure it’ll impact anybody especially at Christmastime,” said Daryl Fingas.

In the past, Fingas said shutdowns haven’t had too big of an impact because employees would get a little extra from the company for being off work, but he said he isn’t sure whether that will happen this time.

Fingas said this kind of thing has happened before, and people cope.

Most people in the town either work for Nutrien or are retired from the company, according to Fingas, so the shutdown will affect a lot of people.

Agriculture is also a big part of the town’s economy, but that business is also being negatively affected by the CN Rail strike.

“It doesn’t take long for their barns and bins to fill up and, what do you do? You’ve only got so much work for people,” said Fingas.