Now into the third week of supply chain disruptions resulting from the Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs dispute over the Coastal GasLink pipeline project, the Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, is calling for the barricades to come down. Requests for meetings from the Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Carolyn Bennett to the hereditary chiefs are being ignored until the RCMP and Coastal GasLink workers move off the territory.
Two blockades are severely impacting operations Montreal and Toronto and have resulted in CN shutting down is eastern network and laying off 450 workers. Via Rail served 875 workers with layoff notices with much of the passenger rail network being shut down. Other short-lived blockades in Edmonton and near Kamloops ended following a CN injunction and negotiation with CP respectively.
West coast anchorages are being fully utilized with demand exceeding capacity in the Lower Mainland and Gulf Islands. The Port of Vancouver is managing the allocation of anchorages to best serve the day-to-day operational needs under the current circumstances.
Earlier this week we co-signed a letter with the Canadian Chamber of Commerce and other key associations seeking the removal of the blockades.
