Manitoba not affected by B.C. port worker strike, industry experts say — for now
Effects could trickle down to the Prairie province if strike drags on for more than a week, professor says
The effects of thousands of port workers striking in British Columbia haven't yet trickled down to Manitoba — but industries in the Prairie province are keeping a close eye on what's unfolding on the West Coast.
While there's usually some buffer built into supply chains, it won't take long for the strike to have an effect in other provinces if it continues, said Barry Prentice, director of the Transport Institute at the University of Manitoba.
"Transportation is a system. You know, it isn't just people who are working at the terminals. There's also people who are driving the trucks … to get things into the port. There's the railways that are bringing things in. There's the ships that are there," Prentice said.
"Yes, it's happening at the West Coast ports, but the impacts extend far beyond that narrow area."
Port workers across B.C. represented by the International Longshore and Warehouse Union walked off the job on Saturday morning in a wide-ranging strike involving about 7,400 terminal cargo workers and 49 of the province's waterfront employers at more than 30 ports, including Vancouver, which is Canada's busiest.
Negotiators failed to reach a deal on Sunday evening after two gruelling days in bargaining.
Prentice said if the strike lasts more than a week, he expects Manitoba will start to feel the effects — especially when it comes to container goods, which include furniture and vehicle parts.
WATCH | B.C. port worker strike sparks concerns over supply chain impacts:
"We saw this during the pandemic, where you only had to have one component missing and all of a sudden you can't send that car out the door or the tractor out the factory and so on," he said.
"There's a lot of inconvenience for a lot of people."
Because Manitoba is several provinces away from the ports affected, it might not get hit as hard as provinces like B.C. and Alberta since it has more access to eastern ports, Prentice said.
But it's still a manufacturing economy that relies on imports — and "you can't just replace these things overnight if there's something that's critical coming in," he said.
Food manufacturers watching closely
One Manitoba agricultural organization said it's not expecting any strike impacts on bulk shipments like grains, canola and cereals.
But it's a different story for container goods — which also include food like pulses, meat products and processed foods, said Keystone Agricultural Producers general manager Brenna Mahoney.
While farmers may not feel the effects for some time, if at all, Manitoba suppliers and their international customers could get hit hard — but it's hard to say how long the strike would need to last to get to that point, Mahoney said.
Michael Mikulak, executive director of Food and Beverage Manitoba, said many in the province's food manufacturing industry rely on imports for everything from packaging to ingredients to equipment.
They also often work under what he called a "just-in-time" model, where there isn't a lot of buffer built into how much inventory is stocked — which means delays in getting regular shipments can spell trouble.
"Any disruptions absolutely can have a pretty outsized impact," said Mikulak, whose non-profit represents manufacturers from large meat processors to small cookie and candy makers.
"I think this really does go to show how interconnected and how, you know, reliant our economy is on the smooth functioning of all the different players."
He said while some manufacturers started stockpiling things like packaging after shipping disruptions during the COVID-19 pandemic, it gets tricky when perishable ingredients are involved.
"If you are, say, operating a major pork processing plant or something like that, there's only so much you can stockpile before you have to sort of get rid of it," Mikulak said.
While manufacturers could start looking for alternatives to the B.C. ports to move their products through if the strike drags on, that's hard to do on short notice.
"So I think a lot of them are going to be hoping that this doesn't roll out for too long," he said.
"I imagine with something like this, if it goes on for more than a week or two, we would start getting … some pretty serious disruptions."
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