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Finance Minister Bill Morneau, following a Calgary speech on Canada’s economic outlook on Monday, told reporters he felt police were “dealing with this in an appropriate manner.”

“We’ve obviously seen projects that are legally approved but have still had some challenges,” Morneau said of the Coastal GasLink project. “In a country where we enable people to have free speech, have their point of view, we are always going to have people that don’t agree with the process that we’ve gone through.”

As Canada’s economy grapples with disruption from coronavirus, rail blockades in Belleville, Ont., and Hazelton, B.C., have further impeded trade corridors.

We respect the right of people to protest, but we don't think they should be doing it on CN track Sean Finn, executive vice-president, Canadian National Railway

Canadian National Railway Co.’s main line is blocked in Belleville, causing a “severe” impact to operations by preventing movement of consumer goods, propane, grain, lumber and steel across the country.

“There is no train service between eastern and Western Canada as we speak,” CN executive vice president Sean Finn said in an interview. “We respect the right of people to protest, but we don’t think they should be doing it on CN track.”

The economic impact is unclear so far, but a strike that halted CN’s operations last fall cost the railway an estimated $18 million per day.

CN’s Aboriginal affairs team has engaged with protesters while its legal team obtained court orders to resume traffic. Their efforts have been unsuccessful thus far.

Canadian Pacific Railway has also been impacted by the blockades and is monitoring the situation.

On the west coast, Canada’s largest port expects to take a “significant” hit from the protests given disruptions to imports and exports, according to a statement from the Vancouver Fraser Port Authority.

“It’s too early to know exactly what the dollar value of these disruptions has been, but generally one dollar in three of Canada’s trade beyond North America moves through the Vancouver gateway,” port spokeswoman Danielle Jang added in an email.

With files from Geoffrey Morgan, the Vancouver Sun, the Edmonton Journal and The Canadian Press.