Manitoba industries grapple with transportation network severed by severe floods

WINNIPEG -

The evolving crisis in southern British Columbia has severed major transportation networks used to ship products from the Port of Vancouver to the rest of Canada.

It’s a disaster unfolding in one province but it’s being felt in the supply chain right across the country.

“Essentially, as you know, that’s cut off right now whether it be by rail or whether it be by truck,” said Randy Zasitko, corporate supply chain director for Winpak, a global packaging company with a manufacturing plant located in Winnipeg that employs 700 people.

Zasitko said the flooding is putting added pressure on an already strained supply chain.

He said the company’s Winnipeg-based plant gets materials from around the globe, including through the Port of Vancouver, which it relies on to make high barrier packaging for perishable foods like the meats and cheeses you find on store shelves.

“We make stuff and products that you would see every day you go shopping, whether it’s stand-up pouches, whether it’s your bacon packages,” Zasitko said.

With the Port of Vancouver cut off from the rest of Canada, Zasitko said some of the company’s materials are now stuck sitting on ships off the coast of B.C. But the company’s dealt with significant supply chain constraints in the past and through risk assessments it’s put contingency plans in place to deal with disasters like the B.C. floods.

Paul Larson, a supply chain management professor at the University of Manitoba, said finding contingencies is going to be key for companies to deal with the effects of climate change.

“This type of disaster occurs, it seems, again and again and more frequently,” Larson said, adding consumers have a choice to make.

“I think this is also an opportunity to look a bit more closely at local production opportunities, consuming local products,” Larson said.

Experts said one of the biggest challenges amid this most recent supply chain disruption could be in the grain industry.

With rail lines washed out, Wade Sobkowich with the Western Grain Elevator Association said some shipments of grain destined for the Port of Vancouver are at a standstill and it’s unclear when the trains will start rolling again.

“Right now we have about 1,000 cars that are on track waiting to get through,” Sobkowich said.

Despite all the challenges, Winpak said it doesn’t anticipate any impact on its customers or on the availability of products consumers buy in stores.

“Our goal is to protect food and protect the consumer and extend shelf life,” Zasitko said.

With concerns over the impact of climate change growing, Zasitko pointed to Winpak’s work to make its packaging and production processes more sustainable.

He said getting materials has become a lot more costly but most of the increases are from supply chain issues that have arisen due to the pandemic.