Tesla taking Canadian deposits for its futuristic Cybertruck | Venture - Daily Hive

If you have a spare $150 CAD, you can reserve your own Tesla Cybertruck when they come into production in late 2021.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk unveiled the company’s electric pickup truck to cheering fans in Los Angeles Thursday evening. The livestreamed reveal suffered a gaffe though, when the vehicle’s supposedly armoured glass windows shattered during a demonstration.

The metal ball that Tesla’s Head of Design Franz von Holzhausen threw at the window “didn’t go through, that’s the plus side,” Musk remarked on stage, adding “there’s room for improvement.”

Cybertruck reveal / Youtube

The exterior exoskeleton is made of the same steel as the Musk’s aerospace company, SpaceX, uses for its Starship rocket. That stood the test when von Holzhausen took a hammer to it.

According to Tesla, the truck was designed to have the utility of a truck and the performance of a sports car.

Cybertruck / Tesla

The entry-level version, priced at $39,900 USD ($53,046 CAD) can accelerate to 96 kilometres per hour in 6.5 seconds and tow 3,400 kilograms. Its battery has a range of 402 kilometres, similar to one tank of gas in a traditional vehicle.

The more expensive dual motor and tri motor versions also come with all wheel drive.

See also:

Tesla has been accepting pre-orders for the vehicles online since the reveal. You can add on full self-driving for $9,200 CAD, although all models come with autopilot included. The deposit costs $150 CAD (American customers need only pay $100 USD to reserve their truck).

According to Tesla’s website, the trucks will come into production in late 2021.

The three models are priced at $39,900 USD, $49,900 USD, and $69,900 USD. Tesla hasn’t posted total prices on its Canadian ordering website. Although $39,900 USD works out to $53,046 CAD today, conversion rates could fluctuate before the trucks become available.

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November 23, 2019 at 04:13AM

Tensions rise as CN Rail strike enters 5th day, talks still underway - Global News

By Staff The Canadian Press

Posted November 23, 2019 7:56 am

The strike at CN Rail is entering its fifth day with tensions rising — and still no end in sight.

Meantime, the federal government is urging the railway and its striking workers to continue talks, suggesting it’s the fastest, and fairest, way to resolve a dispute that has stopped freight trains across the country.

READ MORE: CN Rail strike puts Quebec on propane notice, but Ontario isn’t far behind

Federal Transport Minister Marc Garneau told reporters yesterday in Montreal where the talks are going on that bargaining with the help of a mediator is the way to go.

He says the legislation would be both undesirable and would take longer to get workers back on the job.

1:26Garneau says CN strike impact is felt across the country, mediation needed

Garneau says CN strike impact is felt across the country, mediation needed

Garneau says the Liberal government is very aware of the negative impact the strike is having, noting Canadians are not only inconvenienced by it but in some cases, — as he puts it — are “pretty stressed by this.”

Story continues below advertisement

READ MORE: Why are CN rail workers striking and what do they want?

Meanwhile, the Teamsters union claims Quebec’s propane shortage “appears to be largely manufactured” by CN Rail.

Garneau says there are 100 rail cars of propane on their way from Edmonton to Quebec.

© 2019 The Canadian Press

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November 23, 2019 at 07:56PM

Byron Allen Spares No One in Accusing Comcast of Racial Bias - The New York Times

He broke into the entertainment business as a teenager, playing comedy clubs in Los Angeles and making his first appearance on “The Tonight Show” at age 18. He gained fame as a host of the 1980s NBC hit “Real People” before founding Entertainment Studios in 1993. That company has grown into an empire, with a film division and nearly two dozen television properties, including the Weather Channel, which it acquired last year for $300 million.

Byron Allen offers his story as a model of African-American economic success. In recent years, he has also fashioned himself a civil rights crusader, battling what he says is the racism in corporate America with lawsuits and incendiary rhetoric.

In his $20 billion lawsuit against Comcast, the nation’s largest cable company, Mr. Allen has risked alienating would-be allies like Al Sharpton and the N.A.A.C.P. while drawing the Trump administration as one of his opponents.

“There’s nothing polite about this situation,” Mr. Allen, 58, said in an interview. “I’m going to be loud, proud and I’m going to make a change.”

He filed the lawsuit in 2015, contending that Comcast, after discussing a deal to carry six of his company’s channels, had turned it down in violation of the Civil Rights Act of 1866. The nation’s oldest federal civil rights law, it gives “all persons” the same right “enjoyed by white citizens” to “make and enforce contracts” and “to sue.”

The case was thrown out three times before the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, in San Francisco, ruled last year that the district court had “improperly dismissed” it.

Comcast appealed. When the Supreme Court agreed to hear the case, some black leaders were irked at the prospect that Mr. Allen’s lawsuit could undo longstanding civil rights protections.

At stake before the court in oral arguments on Nov. 13 was not the specifics of his dispute with Comcast, but the standard for proving racial discrimination. The justices seemed to focus on the narrow question of whether a plaintiff like Mr. Allen must make the case that racial discrimination was the main factor or just a contributing factor in the early stages of litigation.

The Supreme Court is not expected to issue its ruling until the spring. However it turns out, Mr. Allen will likely have to return to a lower court to prove that he was discriminated against.

Comcast has vigorously defended its record on diversity and refuted Mr. Allen’s claims of discrimination, arguing that the six networks he wants it to distribute are not interesting enough for its lineup or aren’t distinct from current offerings. His demand that Comcast carry all of them in high definition and the price he is asking are unreasonable, the company said.

“We feel he resorted to frivolous litigation and name-calling instead of business negotiations,” Sena Fitzmaurice, a Comcast spokeswoman, said. “We think he’s hijacking civil rights laws in an attempt to leverage personal financial gain.”

A key element of Mr. Allen’s argument centers on an agreement Comcast struck with black leaders and organizations in 2010 in order to get clearance to purchase NBCUniversal. As part of the deal, the conglomerate agreed to add four new African-American owned networks over eight years. Two of those networks were owned by Sean Combs, the mogul better known as Diddy, and Magic Johnson, the former basketball star and entrepreneur.

Mr. Allen has argued that the organizations that helped broker the deal — the National Urban League, Mr. Sharpton’s National Action Network and the N.A.A.C.P. — were essentially bought off by Comcast, which has donated money to them. The agreement provided only token investment in black-owned networks, Mr. Allen said, and has been used to justify blocking black entrepreneurs from getting a seat at the table.

“I never said you don’t put black faces out there,” Mr. Allen said. “I said you don’t provide true economic inclusion.”

Comcast said it spent $13.2 billion on programming last year, but a spokeswoman declined to say what share of that went to black-owned networks.

Mr. Allen’s criticism of civil rights groups has earned him critics who say he is in it for himself more than the greater good of black people.

But there have also been unlikely supporters.

One of them is Mr. Combs. Even after Mr. Allen suggested he was used by Comcast, Mr. Combs has publicly backed Mr. Allen’s point of view and leveled his own criticism against the company for not providing proper support for his television network, Revolt.

“Our relationship with Comcast is the illusion of economic inclusion,” Mr. Combs said in a statement on Thursday.

Civil rights groups that were once the target of Mr. Allen’s barbs have also come around, signing amicus briefs supporting Mr. Allen’s position in the Supreme Court case.

Before the oral argument, the N.A.A.C.P. held a teleconference in which Senators Kamala Harris and Cory Booker denounced Comcast for actions that they felt were putting civil rights at risk.

“This is a major corporation that is deciding to defend themselves in this case by tearing down a significant aspect of our civil rights protections,” Mr. Booker said during the call.

Bernice A. King, a daughter of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and Representative Bobby Rush, Democrat of Illinois, have written letters to Comcast, questioning its decision to pursue the case before the Supreme Court.

If there is any indication that some black leaders remain uneasy with Mr. Allen, it is that many have avoided expressing a firm opinion on whether or not he was discriminated against by Comcast.

“If that can be established in court, that ought to be established,” said Mr. Sharpton, the activist who also hosts a show on MSNBC, which is owned by Comcast. “What I know is that I had wished that this had been settled, so that we don’t have a constitutional threat to the community.”

The 2010 agreement between Comcast and the civil rights groups failed to position the black-owned networks for success, said Paula Madison, the former chief diversity officer at NBCUniversal who helped broker the deal. An issue raised during negotiations, Ms. Madison said, was whether the company would guarantee the networks a certain number of subscribers. In the end, Comcast agreed to launch the channels, with no guarantee of how many subscribers they would reach.

Ms. Fitzmaurice, the Comcast spokeswoman, said that all of the agreements the company struck with the new black-owned channels included guarantees to distribute them to millions of subscribers.

Television networks generally get paid a fee for each subscriber, and that accounts for a vital funding stream. Although she left Comcast and NBC before the black-owned networks started, Ms. Madison said that former colleagues have told her the networks have struggled to get wide distribution.

Ms. Madison, who is black, has personal experience with the challenge of getting Comcast to distribute a black-owned network. Her family owns the Africa Channel, which Comcast has carried for more than a decade. The channel has lost subscribers in recent years, she said, despite Comcast’s assurances to help it grow.

Ms. Madison said she felt that Comcast had a duty to try to help the new black-owned networks succeed, because they were integral to the company’s gaining federal approval to acquire NBCUniversal. But at a time when streaming becomes dominant and cable operators are looking to shed channels, Ms. Madison said she believed Comcast executives would not blink if the black-owned networks went away.

“It’s laissez-faire,” Ms. Madison said of Comcast’s treatment of the channels. “It’s, ‘They want channels, we’ll give them channels.’”

Ms. Fitzmaurice, the spokeswoman, said that Comcast alone cannot be responsible for the ultimate success of the channels, which needed the buy-in of other cable providers. She also defended Comcast’s handling of the channels, saying, “We have fulfilled to the letter and beyond what we’ve promised to do.”

Comcast’s distribution of the black-owned networks varied widely. The company made Mr. Johnson’s Aspire network available to about three-quarters, or 15.5 million, of its subscribers in the second quarter of this year, according to estimates provided by Kagan, a media market research group within S&P Global Market Intelligence. Mr. Combs’s Revolt was in about 45 percent, or 9.3 million, of Comcast households.

In his statement, Mr. Combs said that Comcast had not provided Revolt with the necessary support. The network is not included in Comcast’s most affordable packages or in the markets that would help it to reach its target audience, he added.

Marc H. Morial, the president of the National Urban League and a negotiator of the 2010 agreement, defended Comcast. The deal created opportunities for minorities at the company, Mr. Morial said, including three people of color joining its board and the company tripling its contracts with minority businesses.

“We did an innovation in corporate diversity that has moved the needle to a greater extent than was moved in the past by laissez-faire, handshake agreements,” said Mr. Morial, who sits on a Comcast advisory council.

One black network owner, Yves Bollanga, praised the company, saying that it had come through with a minimum subscriber guarantee last year when it started distributing his network, Afro.

Comcast offers the channel in its 13 largest markets, Mr. Bollanga said, adding that more than 80 percent of Afro’s 11 million subscribers are through Comcast. The millions of dollars his company collects from Comcast in subscriber fees has allowed it to expand, including the construction of a 35,000-square-foot studio in Orlando, he said.

Mr. Bollanga said he had been in discussions with Comcast since 2007, and the operator had rejected him in the past. He gathered data to make his case to Comcast executives that they should carry his channel.

“Rejection should not always equate to racism,” Mr. Bollanga said. “Byron Allen is putting civil rights protections on the line.”

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2019-11-23 10:00:00Z
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Space kingdom Asgardia wants help from Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos setting up - Business Insider

Lambert/ullstein bild via Getty Images; Alex Wong/Getty Images; Ian West/PA Images via Getty Images

• Asgardia is a non-governmental organization that wants to become the first kingdom and nation-state in space.
• On Saturday, the group's 150 elected representatives met for Asgardia's first parliamentary session in Tallinn, Estonia.
• Asgardia chairman Lembit Opik told Business Insider the group has considered approaching Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos to help them get into outer space. The two tech billionaires founded space companies SpaceX and Blue Origin respectively.
• More than 300,000 people are already paying Asgardia's annual "residency" fee, although UN rules suggest Asgardia's ambition to set up a true space nation won't be realized for some time, if ever.

A self-declared space nation that wants to operate a fully-functioning society in space has started laying out its vision for establishing an off-world colony. 

The Space Kingdom of Asgardia is a genuine project to set up a nation entirely in space, with hundreds of thousands of members paying "residency'" fees and a parliament that is in the process of forming the foundations for its society.

Asgardia's goal is to transport thousands of people to an enormous space station by 2043, beyond Earth's jurisdictions, to "build a new democratic society."

Ambitiously, the space nation is looking to the likes of Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos to get them there. Both billionaires have also set up commercial space firms.

Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and SpaceX.Reuters / Mike Blake

The project, founded by billionaire Russian scientist and politician Igor Ashurbeyli, is currently chaired by former British politician Lembit Opik.

"The obvious candidates are SpaceX and Blue Origin," Opik told Business Insider, citing Musk and Bezos' respective ventures in interstellar travel. "They're the best game in town in terms of space launches. Their rockets are the taxis that can take us where we want to go." 

But can the dream of Asgardia ever become a reality? In an interview with Business Insider, Opik showed a passion for statecraft, detailing every facet of his space-based society, including an overview in foreign policy, banking regulation, business opportunities, and the creation of a new digital currency called "Solar."

Asgardia wants to become a fully-fledged trading nation — although Lembit Opik doesn't plan on living there

Although Asgardia is currently registered as a non-profit organization in Vienna, Austria, Opik sees opportunities ahead for trade. Starting small, there is already an online shop selling mugs, badges and T-shirts "for the discerning Asgardian", but Opik insists there will be much more to come for his "fully-functioning capitalist economy."

"First, there will be the businesses operating within Asgardia itself, and we've already got a small list of candidates there, who could provide us with goods and services, such as ballpoint pens designed to be used in space, specific types of insurance for space-dwellers – whatever," he said.

"Then of course, there will be businesses who want to sell us things, like Mr Musk or Mr Bezos... If you've got a big rocket and can take us into space, we might buy it off you," he added.

Asgardia was founded by Ashurbeyli in 2016 — or "Year 0" in the Asgardian calendar – and it now boasts an elected body of 150 members from all over the world, after online elections last year. Its incumbent Prime Minister is Ana Diaz, a lawyer from Venezuela, and its chief justice is Zhao Yun, a fellow lawyer from Hong Kong. Opik was voted in last year as head of parliament.

Ashurbeyli is understood to have invested around $12 million of his own money into the project to date, while another $2 million has been paid in by members of the public.

At present, Asgardia has three tiers of members: "followers", "residents", and "citizens."

According to Opik, more than a million followers have already signed up for free worldwide, while another 300,000 are paying an annual €100 ($110) residency fee. This weekend, he and his colleagues in the Asgardian parliament will debate how much to charge for citizenship (i.e. those eligible to live on Asgardia when it is launched).

"We are planning for the long-term," he said. "So we've got to make sure we get everything absolutely right." 

Opik added that he doesn't plan to permanently reside in Asgardia himself, should it come into being, though he would visit.

"I'd rather be a day-tripper than a homesteader," he said. "My job is to help the settlement of space but probably not settle there myself."

In 2017, the kingdom sent its first satellite into Earth's orbit, making it, in its own words, "the first nation to have all of its territory in space".

An illustration of Asgardian satellites.Asgardia/James Vaughan

The tiny satellite, Asgardia-1, is currently floating around Earth and about the size of a loaf of bread. It contains a 512GB hard drive loaded with "the nation's constitutions, national symbols, and the personally-selected data of the Asgardian citizenship". 

Under the rules of the United Nations, Asgardia could technically qualify for recognition as a state, as more than 100,000 people look set to apply for citizenship. But it's unlikely it will be acknowledged as a sovereign nation any time soon. 

Business Insider previously contacted the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA) to clarify whether current space law would permit the existence of a nation or territory in space. They directed us to the text of five UN treaties that govern activities in space. 

Article II of the first and most important part of that legal framework, called the Outer Space Treaty, prohibits "national appropriation" of anything in outer space "by claim of sovereignty, by means of use or occupation, or by any other means". 

But Opik remains optimistic despite the opposition, telling us the project has "taken up so much of [his] life". Once established, he insists Asgardia will take a neutral stance on all Earthly matters. "We will not interfere in Earthly matters, and we hope they would not interfere in ours... We want what any sovereign nation wants: recognition."

Blue Origin, Jeff Bezos' space company, declined to comment.

Elon Musk did not respond to a request for comment.

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What is really going on with the CN Rail strike, the propane shortage and Quebec's 'emergency' - National Post

Parts of the country are facing propane shortages as a strike among railway workers causes the transportation system to grind to a halt. This means that some farmers are struggling to dry their grain. It also means, in Quebec, the government is worrying that hospitals and retirement homes are going to run out of the fuel. The Post’s Tyler Dawson explains the situation.

That’s not great, what’s happened?

Canadian National Railway workers are on strike, as of Tuesday. Some 3,000 of them. The sticking point seems to be working conditions. The union says it’s unsafe; CN disagrees. They’ve been in negotiations for months.

But now they’re on strike, so whatever’s being moved on CN tracks is not moving at the same rate.

As it happens, 1,800 locomotive engineers and 600 supervisors can cross picket lines. The Teamsters union said Friday they think CN might be forcing a shortage by throttling rail shipments.

“We wonder if CN is choosing not to ship goods like propane in order to manufacture a crisis and force back-to-work legislation,” said Lyndon Isaak, president of the union, according to Bloomberg.

Why does this matter for propane?

Some 85 per cent of the propane used in Quebec is supplied by rail. So when the rail workers go on strike, the propane isn’t moving. Which means Quebec’s reserves are dwindling, even a few days into the strike. On Thursday, Premier François Legault called it an “emergency” for the province. He said Quebec keeps 12 million litres of propane in reserve, and uses about six million litres per day. Which means two days of propane, in theory. But rationing has begun, media reports said, bringing daily usage down to 2.5 million litres per day.

So how many days until it’s all gone?

Jonatan Julien, the minister of energy, announced Friday a train from western Canada will arrive by Monday with 20 million litres, and that would be sufficient, atop the existing reserves, to carry through to Thursday.

Priority one would be health industries. There have been some concerns about the supply of propane for hospitals and retirement homes, as well as for farmers to dry grain. But, also, Legault said Quebec is attempting to find trucks to bring the needed supplies of propane into the province.

Really? Why propane?

Good question! Hospitals are powered with a variety of other fuels. Roger Holliss, the director of engineering at St. Mary’s General Hospital in Kitchener and president of the Canadian Healthcare Engineering Society, said natural gas is probably the most common (though he cautioned his expertise was mainly in regards to his own hospital).

Diesel is “often the dominant fuel for emergency generators,” said Holliss, but propane is used sometimes too, and for cooking.

“We only use propane for pilot lights/starters on our main boilers. Therefore I don’t need to carry much propane in reserve as my consumption of propane is very low,” wrote Holliss in an email. “For other hospitals, particularly more rural hospitals, this would be quite different.”

In Alberta, hospitals are powered by electricity, with diesel, usually, being the backup fuel. “They would have reserve tanks that could run the generator for at least 72 hours,” said Alberta Health spokesperson Sabrina Atwal in an email.

Trains sit in the yard at the CN Rail Brampton Intermodal Terminal on Nov. 19, 2019. The Teamsters union questions if CN is “choosing not to ship goods like propane in order to manufacture a crisis.” Mark Blinch/Reuters/File

So why does Quebec use propane?

Contrary to what’s been reported, Quebec doesn’t actually use propane as the main source of energy in either hospitals or retirement homes, explained Marie-Claude Lacasse, a spokesperson for the ministry of health.

It uses hydro-electric power. But propane is the backup power in some hospitals, she said, and in some retirement homes.

“It’s mainly used in the kitchen and for some lab activities,” said Lacasse.

It can also be used for washing laundry.

“For now, we’re not talking about a crisis in the hospitals or in Quebec,” she said. “None of that.”

How is this news being received in the West?

Unsurprisingly, Albertans are like: Hey, you could build a pipeline. Said Premier Jason Kenney: “You could actually ship it in by pipeline. We think our friends in Quebec should understand obviously the danger, potential danger, of rail shipments.”

Other politicians, meanwhile, are talking about back-to-work legislation that would force rail workers back on the job.

Can propane even be distributed by pipeline?

Nathalie St-Pierre, the head of the Canadian Propane Association, says propane can be moved in a pipeline as a natural gas liquid. When transported by truck and rail, it’s in the form of a gas.

Much of the natural gas liquids come from Alberta, and are transported via pipeline to Sarnia, Ont., where they are processed into ethane, butane and propane.

“In Quebec there’s some local production, but the rest is mostly by rail,” said St-Pierre. “Ontario east, you’d have more rail, and the rest is a lot more pipelines.”

About 100,000 litres of propane can be carried in one rail car, she said. About 30 per cent of Quebec’s propane is used in agriculture.

In the end, are old people really going to start dying in retirement homes and hospitals because of this propane shortage?

It’s possible that when Albertans said “let the eastern bastards freeze in the dark” they didn’t actually mean it literally. The announcement Friday that there will be reserves enough to get through the week is likely good news for everyone.

• Email: tdawson@postmedia.com | Twitter: tylerrdawson

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November 23, 2019 at 06:45AM

New shutdown to put thousands of B.C. loggers out of work Monday - CTV News

VICTORIA - Vancouver Island’s forestry sector is about to suffer another blow as forest management company Mosaic plans to temporarily shutter its logging operations.

In a statement released Thursday, the company said harvesting operations will cease on Monday, Nov. 25, a move that will impact roughly 2,000 workers.

“We are currently experiencing very challenging pricing and market conditions,” said Pam Agnew, communications manager for Mosaic Forest Management. “As a result, we are shutting down earlier, ahead of a usual winter shutdown.”

Following Mosaic's early curtailing announcement, B.C. Minister of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations, and Rural Development Doug Donaldson told CTV News that that province sympathized with the company's workers.

"We’re aware and disappointed to hear about Mosaic’s decision to shut down operations ahead of their usual winter shutdown," said Donaldson in a statement. "I feel for the workers, their families and communities impacted by Mosaic’s decision."

"I have asked ministry staff to reach out to Mosaic’s human resources staff to ensure they are aware of available government resources."

Mosaic Forest Management was formed by an affiliation of Island Timberlands and Timber West in 2018.

The company’s website says it employs people throughout Vancouver Island and Coastal B.C. 

“The temporary curtailment impacts contractors, both union and non-union – approximately 2,000 people across the coast,” said Agnew. 

The hit comes as B.C.’s forestry sector is in the throes of a lengthy and devastating strike. In Port McNeill, Western Forest Products unionized workers have been locked in a strike with their employer for five months. 

The North Island community's mayor, Gabriele Wickstrom, recently penned an open letter to both the union and the forestry company saying that the strike was "killing our communities."

"We are working with our customers and contractors to manage through this challenging time," said Mosaic Forest Management in its curtailing announcement.

"We will monitor the situation very closely. Our first priority is safety and getting everyone back to work as soon as markets allow."

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Farmers fear losing harvest if rail strike drags on - CBC.ca

Grain farmers in eastern Ontario and western Quebec fear their harvests could be lost because the ongoing CN Rail strike has cut off the supply of propane they need to dry their crops.

Mike Verdonck has shut down operations at his farm about 125 kilometres east of Ottawa, just over the Ontario-Quebec border. His propane tanks empty, Verdonck's storage bins are filled with 250 tonnes of wet corn that could soon go to waste.

It's more than losing business, it's losing everything we worked for the whole year.- Mike Verdonck

"It's a huge disaster," he said. "It's more than losing business, it's losing everything we worked for the whole year."

The propane powers Verdonck's grain dryer, which is used to dehumidify the crops so they don't ferment or go mouldy when they're in storage.

"You cannot store that for a long time," Verdonck said. "You got to dry it."

On Tuesday, 3,200 CN conductors, train and yard workers walked off the job after negotiations on a new contract with the railway were unsuccessful.

The same day, Verdonck got a call from his propane supplier telling him he wouldn't receive another shipment until the trains are running again. 

Grain farmers in eastern Ontario and western Quebec say they're running out of time. (Jean Deslisle/CBC)

In the meantime, he's rotating his yield from one bin to another in hopes of keeping it from rotting.

"Of course, we won't be able to do that for weeks. You can hold on like that for a few days but that's about it," he said.

Sound of silence

You just have to listen to understand the impact the propane shortage is having, said Dominique Leroux, who farms nearby.

"At this time of the year you would hear combines in the fields harvesting the crops, you would hear dryer fans to dry the corn, to cool the corn," Leroux said. "Now it's pretty quiet."

Farmers Dominique Leroux, left, and Mike Verdonck, right, can't harvest the grain still in their fields because there's nowhere to store it. (Jean Delisle/CBC)

He said there's only one word to sum up what farmers are feeling right now: "Desperation."

Meanwhile, acres of crops haven't been harvested yet because of this year's late growing season. If the corn is left in the field much longer, it will go to waste, too, Verdonck said. But until his dryers are working he has no way to store it.

Farmers Mike Verdonck and Dominique Le Roux say a mix of tough weather events and an unexpected lack of propane has many farmers unable to harvest and dry their crops.  2:17

The federal government has urged CN Rail and the union representing the workers, the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference, to continue negotiating. In the meantime, farmers said they're watching this year's profits go to ruin.

Propane suppliers have dispatched trucks in an effort to keep their product flowing, but it's impossible to make up the volume that was carried by rail, said Christian Levac, one of the owners of Levac Propane, a family-owned business serving the region.

In Quebec, 85 per cent of the propane supply is shipped by rail, and the remaining supply is being stretched thin.

About 3,200 CN employees have been without a contract since July 23. The workers are mostly located in major urban centres across Canada. (Graham Hughes/The Canadian Press)

Levac said his company has had to prioritize residential customers, institutions such as hospitals and farms with livestock, and that's meant saying no to customers who need propane to run grain dryers. 

"It's our civil responsibility," he said. 

Consumers could feel pinch

Even if the rail strike is resolved quickly, it may be too late for farmers to recoup their loses because of the backlog of propane shipments, said Markus Haerle, one of the directors of Ontario Grain Farmers. 

"Agriculture is being cut off completely," Haerle said. "It's a huge issue."

Levac Propane is shipping what it can by truck, but the supply is running thin. (Laura Osman/CBC)

He said the lack of propane is hurting farmers across the country, but particularly in eastern Canada where there are fewer pipelines.

If grain farmers are left without propane for much longer, Haerle said he expects consumers are going to start to feel the financial impact as well, particularly when it comes to the price of meat. 

"The daily consumer is going to be feeling the impact of this because some of that corn goes into animal feed," he said.  "There's certainly going to be an impact to everybody."

Markus Haerle is the district director for Ontario Grain Farmers. (Jean-Deslisle/CBC)

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November 22, 2019 at 04:00PM