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
Quebec nurse had to clean up after husband's death in Montreal hospital
On a night she should have been mourning, a nurse from Quebec's Laurentians region says she was forced to clean up her husband after he died at a hospital in Montreal.
Northern Ont. lawyer who abandoned clients in child protection cases disbarred
A North Bay, Ont., lawyer who abandoned 15 clients – many of them child protection cases – has lost his licence to practise law.
Bank of Canada officials split on when to start cutting interest rates
Members of the Bank of Canada's governing council were split on how long the central bank should wait before it starts cutting interest rates when they met earlier this month.
Maple Leafs fall to Bruins in Game 3, trail series 2-1
Brad Marchand scored twice, including the winner in the third period, and added an assist as the Boston Bruins downed the Toronto Maple Leafs 4-2 to take a 2-1 lead in their first-round playoff series Wednesday
Cuban government apologizes to Montreal-area family after delivering wrong body
Cuba's foreign affairs minister has apologized to a Montreal-area family after they were sent the wrong body following the death of a loved one.
'It was instant karma': Viral video captures failed theft attempt in Nanaimo, B.C.
Mounties in Nanaimo, B.C., say two late-night revellers are lucky their allegedly drunken antics weren't reported to police after security cameras captured the men trying to steal a heavy sign from a downtown business.
What is changing about Canada's capital gains tax and how does it impact me?
The federal government's proposed change to capital gains taxation is expected to increase taxes on investments and mainly affect wealthy Canadians and businesses. Here's what you need to know about the move.
New Indigenous loan guarantee program a 'really big deal,' Freeland says at Toronto conference
Canada's Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland was among the 1,700 delegates attending the two-day First Nations Major Projects Coalition (FNMPC) conference that concluded Tuesday in Toronto.
'Life was not fair to him': Daughter of N.B. man exonerated of murder remembers him as a kind soul
The daughter of a New Brunswick man recently exonerated from murder, is remembering her father as somebody who, despite a wrongful conviction, never became bitter or angry.