An Okanagan business feels like it has little recourse in a dispute with a major Canadian railway.
Coldstream Lumber’s president Jonhal Lee is frustrated because, he says, CN unilaterally took away the business’s access to a rail crossing into its lumber yard.
That, Lee says, has not only caused the business to have to make hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of alterations to its property, but also caused safety concerns.
“We are paying for the rental of the crossing as well as for the upkeep, and we were told even though we are paying for that, we can no longer have access,” Lee said.
The company said it has had access to the rail spur for decades, but that ended in June.
“We can’t get any response from anybody over there right now. We’re very frustrated,” Lee said.
“We actually don’t know who to talk to or what to do about the situation, but it is impacting our business in a major way here.”
The problem, Lee says, is that without the railway crossing access, large vehicles are now forced to use the same road as both an entrance and an exit, instead of making a loop and going in one entrance and out another.
“We widened our road, but we still have trucks coming in head-to-head, in and out of the same gate,” Lee said.
“It is not ultimately safe in our opinion.”
Coldstream Lumber is open to the idea of making changes to its practices to allow continued access to the rail crossing.
“Any decision that makes sense to them they just do and they don’t have anybody to answer to,” Lee said.
“We employ more than 50 people here locally. All of their jobs are hinging on our ability to move lumber in and out safely from this facility. It would have been nice to have a more positive back-and-forth input.”
WATCH: (June 23, 2019) Neighbours voice concerns about safety near Okanagan Rail Trail
The problem started when Coldstream Lumber requested a second private crossing.
CN not only rejected the idea of a second crossing, but told the company it was closing the existing crossing that gave access to the Coldstream lumberyard.
In its letter to Coldstream Lumber, CN said its agreement for use of the private rail crossing was with Detaya Holdings, a company that amalgamated with Coldstream Lumber in 2012, becoming part of the business.
However, the railway argues that means Coldstream Lumber doesn’t have the right to use the crossing.
CN also took issue with the fact Coldstream Lumber has no property on the other side of the tracks from the crossing and argued the company has been “illegally using” the crossing and CN access road.
In a brief statement to Global News, the railway said it has acted in compliance with its obligations.
“CN has been in contact with Coldstream in the past and has offered to meet with them to discuss this issue,” said the CN statement.
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