His company's stock is up 30 per cent on the year and it posted a pretty decent second quarter, but the chief executive of Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd. said Monday any economic recovery is at least nine months away. As in, May, 2010.
"I am not seeing any evidence anywhere that would cause me to believe that there is a substantive, sustained recovery under way ... I don't personally believe yet that we are done on the downside," Fred Green was quoted as saying at a transportation conference in Toronto.
CP's car loads were 19 per cent to 20 per cent lower than the same time a year ago at the end of August. It has laid off 2,000 employees and parked 400 locomotives. Cost-cutting led to a second-quarter profit of $157.3-million, but Mr. Green sounded an equally alarming note when releasing the data at the end of July.
"In an economic environment like this, where we're not seeing any signs of a substantive recovery, we continue to focus our efforts and actively manage what's within our control," he said during a conference call.