Manitoba industries grapple with transportation network severed by severe floods
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.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
MPP Sarah Jama asked to leave Ontario legislature for wearing keffiyeh
MPP Sarah Jama was asked to leave the Legislative Assembly of Ontario by House Speaker Ted Arnott on Thursday for wearing a keffiyeh, a garment which has been banned at Queen’s Park.
2 teens charged in Halifax homicide: police
Two teenagers have been charged with second-degree murder in connection to an alleged homicide near the Halifax Shopping Centre earlier this week.
'Deep ignorance': Calls for Manitoba trustee to resign sparked after comments about Indigenous people and reconciliation
A rural Manitoba school trustee is facing calls to resign over comments he made about Indigenous people and residential schools earlier this week.
Humanist group threatening to sue Vancouver over council prayers
The B.C. Humanist Association has threatened legal action against the City of Vancouver for allowing prayers at council, following a similar warning issued earlier this month to a smaller community on Vancouver Island.
Legendary hockey broadcaster Bob Cole dies at 90: CBC
Bob Cole, a welcome voice for Canadian hockey fans for a half-century, has died at the age of 90. Cole died Wednesday night in St. John's, N.L., surrounded by his family, his daughter, Megan Cole, told the CBC.
Here's why Harvey Weinstein's New York rape conviction was tossed and what happens next
Here's what you need to know about why movie mogul Harvey Weinstein's rape conviction was thrown out and what happens next.
12-year-old hippo in Japan raised as a male discovered to be a female
When Gen-chan arrived at a zoo in Japan in 2017, no one questioned whether the then-five-year-old hippopotamus was a boy. Seven years later, zoo staff made a surprising discovery: Gen-chan, now 12, was female.
Mountain guide dies after falling into a crevasse in Banff National Park
A man who fell into a crevasse while leading a backcountry ski group deep in the Canadian Rockies has died.
LHSC performs a Canadian first in robot-assisted direct lateral spine surgery
Spine surgery may never be the same for people with chronic back pain and other physical ailments.