Roughly 300 Canada Pacific Kansas City (CPKC) employees may be impacted by a planned migration as CPKC aims to transition workers from Revelstoke to Kamloops.
In a written statement to Revelstoke Mountaineer Rebecca Stephen, CPKC director of communications explained the shift to Kamloops is driven by employees themselves requesting transfers or resigning due to Revelstoke’s “cost of living and housing availability.”
“Maintaining staff levels and filling several positions has remained a persistent challenge,” Stephen wrote.
Teamsters Canada Rail Conference (TCRC) union, which said the announcement came as a surprise, is working on behalf of 124 workers to mitigate the impact this move may cause.
“Our members are anxious about the move,” Christopher Monette, Teamster media relations said. “A lot of folks there, they’ve got roots down in the community, and it’s going to be complicated to potentially uproot their lives in order to follow their careers.”
CPKC’s aim to implement the transition of employees to Kamloops by Thursday, Dec. 4 doesn’t feel achievable to TCRC, which is in negotiations with CPKC to protect union member wages and develop relocation packages.
“The scale of this move will be incredibly challenging,” TCRC Vice-President Ryan Finnson said in a press release. “Most previous relocations have not resulted in mutual agreement, ultimately being settled through arbitration.”
Housing availability and cost of living are not Revelstoke-specific challenges for employers, Monette pointed out. However, this region does have significantly less to offer in terms of rental vacancies.
While Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) does not have rental data for communities with a population under 10,000, The City of Revelstoke used CMHC’s data for Vernon and Salmon Arm to demonstrate rental vacancy rates in the region in a 2023 update to the 2018 Housing Needs and Demand Assessment. The report states an estimated 0.4 to 0.7 per cent rental vacancy rate for the region, compared to Kamloops’ estimated 1.4 per cent vacancy rate, with a healthy market within 3 per cent and 5 per cent.
CPKC pointed to two staff housing units with a total of 48 units, built in 2022 and 2023 in its Revelstoke yard as a strategy to try and support employees with housing, but did not comment on any other strategies it attempted to keep employees housed in Revelstoke, which “will remain an important operational centre and crew area for CPKC,” Stephen said.
Economic and community impact
TCRC union members, oftentimes locomotive engineers, conductors and yard workers are a core part of Revelstoke’s middle class, Monette said. Removing that workforce could divert roughly millions of dollars in wages out of Revelstoke’s economy, he theorized. Specifically, the loss of local residents could hinder businesses and organizations in the coming shoulder seasons.
“The shoulder season in our community is dependent on our locals, which could see some impact from these potential relocation plans,” Caroline Lachapelle, Revelstoke Chamber of Commerce CEO told Revelstoke Mountaineer.
“CPKC’s decision now, which came to us as a complete surprise, to relocate a major portion of that work will be extremely disruptive to our members,” Monette said.
It’s not just CPCK staff who will be relocated from Revelstoke but their partners, spouses and families as well.
“CPKC and their employees are an integral part of our community. It’s always disheartening to hear of the loss of workforce due to relocation,” LaChapelle said.
TCRC is keeping in mind this community impact as the union negotiates with CPKC.
“The more a worker has ties to Revelstoke – they might have families, extended family in the community, they might have a kid going to school – the more it’s going to hurt them, this move,” Monette said.
Monette confirmed that at the moment CPKC does not have plans to move the entire Revelstoke workforce to other locations. But what that future workforce looks like won’t be clear until after negotiations and the Dec. 4 deadline.
Until then, Monette encourages Revelstoke to connect with local CPKC employees and offer support, noting the long-standing connection to the rail Revelstoke has and the generations who have worked with the former Canadian Pacific Railway and current CPKC.
“The best thing to do would be to just talk to the railroaders you do know in your community. Ask if there’s anything that can be done to help them as individuals through this very worrisome and anxious time.”
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