CN becomes national sponsor of Canadian Red Cross's Ready When the Time Comes natural disaster assistance program

MONTREAL, April 28 /PRNewswire/ - CN (TSX: CNR)(NYSE: CNI) announced today it has teamed up with the Canadian Red Cross to recruit and train corporate employees as disaster volunteers to help the agency respond to natural disasters. With a contribution of C$450,000, CN becomes a national sponsor of the Ready When the Time Comes (RWTC) natural disaster preparedness program.

RWTC is a workplace volunteer program in which the Red Cross trains and prepares employees of businesses who can be mobilized as a community-based volunteer force when large-scale natural disasters strike, including floods, fires, tornadoes and extreme weather conditions.

CN's contribution will provide the RWTC program with the following program support:

    - Training of RWTC volunteers;
    - Development of information on how to prepare for emergencies;
    - Development of disaster and emergency intervention strategies.

"We are extremely grateful for CN's generous contribution to this innovative program," said Conrad Sauvé, secretary general and CEO of the Canadian Red Cross. "We also applaud its team members for helping the Canadian Red Cross build a network of volunteers. Ready When the Time Comes will help the Canadian Red Cross accomplish its mandate of preparing and responding to disasters. It enables us to reach out to corporations and tap into one of their most valuable resources, employees."

Karen Phillips, CN's vice-president of public and government affairs, said: "At CN, we feel it is our responsibility to help the communities in which we operate, and our partnership with the Canadian Red Cross will help us fulfill that objective. We are proud to become a national sponsor of the Ready When the Time Comes program, a rewarding and innovative way to help in times of greatest need."

For more information about the Ready When the Time Comes program, please visit: http://www.redcross.ca/article.asp?id=37340&tid=001

CN - Canadian National Railway Company and its operating railway subsidiaries - spans Canada and mid-America, from the Atlantic and Pacific oceans to the Gulf of Mexico, serving the ports of Vancouver, Prince Rupert, B.C., Montreal, Halifax, New Orleans, and Mobile, Ala., and the key metropolitan areas of Toronto, Buffalo, Chicago, Detroit, Duluth, Minn./Superior, Wis., Green Bay, Wis., Minneapolis/St. Paul, Memphis, and Jackson, Miss., with connections to all points in North America. For more information on CN, visit the company's website at www.cn.ca.

The Canadian Red Cross is a member of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, which includes the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, the International Committee of the Red Cross and more than 185 national Red Cross and Red Crescent societies. Our mission is to improve the lives of vulnerable people by mobilizing the power of humanity in Canada and around the world.

SOURCE CN