Nutrien still planning two-week closure of Rocanville potash mine, despite CN Rail strike ending

A southern Saskatchewan potash mine will remain closed for two weeks, despite a tentative deal that will see CN Rail workers back on the job Wednesday afternoon.

Members of the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference who work for CN are expected to go back to work Wednesday after going on strike last week.

On Monday, Nutrien announced it was temporarily closing down its Rocanville potash mine and blamedthe CN strike, which Nutrien said made it difficult to get the mineral to ports.

On Tuesday, after news broke that the strike was ending, Nutrien said it would stick to its plan to close the mine. The decision means roughly 580 workers at the mine will be temporarily laid off,with60 to 65 kept on for maintenance.

"While the end of the strike is great news for farmers, the broader Canadian economy and us, we are still working through a significant backlog in our supply chain," said Nutrien spokesperson Will Tingley.

Tingley said the mine's storage facility is fulland will need the two weeks of down time to return things to normal. Tingley said the decisiondid not have anything to do with a slow potash market.

Not everyone is convinced that's completely true.

Sylvain Charlebois, a professor of food distribution and policy at Dalhousie University, said potash companies often control the amount of potash on the market to inflate prices.

"It is quite typical to see that happening this time of year," he said. "It is one way they have to increase revenues as much as possible."

Charlebois said the strategy may not be a good idea over the long-term.

"It's an easy way to generate growth for the company but it's not a good way to generate sustainable growth over the long term and keep employees working," he said.

"Once you you lose people, it's hard to recruit again and keep them in the region."

Looking more broadly, Charlebois said the CN Rail strike shows there are serious problems with the Canadian transportation system when it comes to getting goods to market.

"You cannot allow one company to hold an entire economy hostage, basically, and CN is in that position right now," he said.

"This could happen again, easily."

The union representing mine workers estimated that the temporary layoffs would affect more than 500 people.

In September, Nutrien announced it would be shutting down its Allan, Lanigan and Vanscoy potash mines for eight weeks during the last quarter of the year.

The move, which was meant to slow down production in the face of low demand, was expected to reduce production by 700,000 tonnes.

Those workers are expected to get back to work by the end of December.

Rocanville is located approximately 220 kilometres east of Regina.