If we rely on other disruptions linked to labor conflicts that have taken place in ports across the country in recent years, repercussions of the lockout at the Port of Montreal could be felt on the shelves before the 10th day.
• Also read: The lockout at the Port of Montreal will have “immediate” economic consequences
• Also read: “It’s Mr. and Mrs. Everybody who will pay”
• Also read: “The longshoremen do not have bad working conditions”
At least that’s what the president of Dolbec International, Pierre Dolbec, suggested in an interview on the show Quebec morning, mardi.
In 2023, a 12-day strike took place at the Port of Vancouver from July 1 to 13, causing significant disruption.
According to a report from the Standing Committee on International Trade on this subject, this walkout had an impact on shipments of goods worth $10 billion, affecting 1.8 million workers in the Canadian manufacturing industry as well as their employers. .
Mr. Dolbec says that effects were felt in the stores before the 10th day of the strike.
“It took us three and a half to four months to manage to regain a little regularity in the movement of products,” he said. We had effects on the tablets here from the ninth, tenth and eleventh day.
The twelve days were long enough for several perishable products to go to waste.
“Forestry companies have had to reduce production and some high-value perishable refrigerated products, such as fresh pork, have been lost before they could reach markets,” said Assistant Deputy Minister at the Department of Transportation Robert Dick. of a meeting of the Standing Committee on International Trade in 2023.
The disruptions underway across the country in Montreal and Vancouver would be even greater than those of last year.
“Historically, this has never happened before,” says the president of Dolbec International. We have never had a strike by the two largest Canadian ports at the same time. It’s the east and the west that are completely blocked as we speak.”
“After two days in Montreal, it’s difficult to see what will happen, but if it continues for five or six days, combined with Vancouver, which has been longer, it risks being catastrophic,” he adds.
Mr. Dolbec believes that seasonal Christmas products will not be affected, but that those which are usually delivered “just in time” will be the first to suffer the impacts of this crisis.
“A lot of people started to wonder what was going to happen for Christmas, these products have already arrived,” he said. Companies, when they place their orders, they are ahead of the season.”
“On the other hand, products which are more perishable, like the food industry or pharmaceutical products which work much more with a “just in time”, yes, we can have a vulnerable side more quickly if it stays like that”, continues -he.
For now, some containers are being redirected to the ports of St. John’s and Halifax to be transported by rail within the country.
However, this detour is far from being a solution in itself.
“Currently, it is not a congestion, it is a complete breakdown in the movement of supply of products,” says Mr. Dolbec. It’s definitely the consumer, in the end, like last time, who will pay the bill.”
“Transportation itself should be considered an essential service,” he adds. It is completely inconceivable to see an economy being blocked. If there is no transportation, there is no economy.”
Watch the full interview in the video above
