OVR issues 30 layoff notices

The Ottawa Valley Railway issued layoff notices to 30 employees Monday.

The company, which has an office and operates a section of business in North Bay, says the layoffs are a directly related to a downturn in business. Reports indicate that Canadian Pacific’s decision to reroute its freight trains to its own system between Sudbury and Montreal spurred on the layoffs and will affect the OVR's transportation department. That means dispatchers, engineers and conductors are going to feel the pinch but officials say as they economy rebounds they expect to return to normal employment levels.

Meanwhile, the rail yards at Ontario Northland have also had recent layoffs as a result of the economic downturn as a dozen employees were given layoff notices. Tricia Marshall, a spokeswoman with the Crown corporation, notes a one month shutdown at Tembec in Kapuskasing and an 2 month closure at Xstrata near Timmins has caused the company to act but that they hope to be back to normal operation as soon as possible.

“As a result of two of our customers temporarily shutting down operations, we have proceeded to reduce some of the freight train service, which includes the temporary laying off 10 employees,” she states.

“In addition, some other employees will be deployed to capital projects or to our refurbishment division to work on the GO Transit refurbishment project. Over the next few weeks we will continue to monitor our traffic volumes very carefully while we wait to learn when our customers will resume operations.”