The reputation of Canada’s special crops industry will take a hit if a strike by truck drivers at the Port of Vancouver isn’t settled quickly, says an industry official.
“It’s kind of a black eye for Canada,” said Francois Catellier, executive director of the Canadian Special Crops Association.
An estimated 1,200 truckers who move loaded containers from stuffing facilities to export terminals have been on strike since June 28, throwing operations at the busy container port into chaos.
Talks got under way over the Canada Day weekend between the Vancouver Container Trucking Association, which represents about 75 percent of all container truck operators, and their employers, with the assistance of a government appointed mediator.
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The workers want more money to compensate them for higher fuel costs, as well as a better system for reserving space for container deliveries.
The federal government also announced an inquiry to look into a variety of traffic issues at the port and recommend ways to resolve problems facing truck drivers.
About 40 percent of Canada’s special crops exports leave this country in containers, most of which are loaded at the stuffing facilities at the port.
“This is definitely a challenge for us right now,” said Catellier.
“For every week that this drags on, we’ll take an extra three weeks to get caught up with the backlog.”
Normally this wouldn’t be a busy time for grain shipments, but things are a little different this year.
With a sizable crop in the offing, farmers are looking to clear out their bins before the markets take a dive. As a result, significant volumes of edible peas and beans and lower quality lentils are moving to market.
Catellier said while he doesn’t want to take sides in the dispute, he does have some sympathy for the truckers, especially as container traffic at the port has taken off in recent years.
The association has been urging port authorities for some time to work with the truckers to devise a better reservation system so they don’t have to sit in line for hours, wasting time and fuel.
The system worked fine when the port was handling 800,000 TEUs (20-foot units) a year.
“Now with two million TEUs, the weaknesses of the system are coming out big time,” he said.
The Western Canadian Wheat Growers Association has also urged both sides to resolve the dispute.
“This disruption is resulting in delayed shipments of grain, possible loss of sales, demurrage charges and other storage and carrying costs,” association president Cherilyn Jolly-Nagel said in a News release
news.
