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On Tuesday, CN called back to work most of the 450 employees it temporarily laid off during the blockades, which have mostly dispersed over the past four days since the Wet’suwet’en chiefs reached a draft arrangement with B.C. and federal officials.

CN will not reveal the exact cost until it releases financial results in April, but Ruest said the hit will be in the scale of the impact from the eight-day strike by CN employees in November. That prompted CN to cut its 2019 annual guidance by 15 cents per share, meaning it lost an estimated $140 million or $18 million per day during the labour action.

The blockades were harder to plan for than the strike given their unpredictability, which stressed both employees and customers, Ruest said.

“People were just showing up on our tracks and the crews would tell us, ‘There’s people ahead,’” he said.

“In the last 15 days, we would find on social media that something is about to happen and therefore we’re going to have to do what we can without that piece of track.”

He thanked customers, various law enforcement agencies, CN Police Services and the provincial and federal governments for their support during the blockades.