St. Albert businesses say while they're not being immediately impacted by the rail blockades in support of the Wet'suwet'en hereditary chiefs, they're keeping a close eye on the situation.
Dave LaFramboise, raw material buyer with Pro-Western Plastics Ltd. in St. Albert, said their ability to transport their product to customers by rail hasn’t been affected because they primarily use CP Rail lines. However, the plastic moulding company is taking precautions by ordering their raw material, or polyethylene, weeks earlier than usual.
"We would not be able to keep up if our ability to get our raw material by rail was affected,” LaFramboise said.
Nuno Branco, vice-president of operations at Orion Plastics in St. Albert, said a delivery of raw material was delayed out of the Port of Vancouver by a week because of the blockade there.
"Raw material is coming each month for us. One week is okay, maybe even a second week, but anything after that could be a problem for us."
Local building material provider L.B.H.Timber Mart had received product from their suppliers before the blockades started, according to a spokesperson, though if the blockades stretch over months, their suppliers' ability to get product to the store would be affected.
Todd Hirsch, chief economist with ATB Financial, said the road to resolution is not an easy fix, as the real solution lies in the Canadian government’s relationship with Indigenous peoples. But every day that goes by means lost revenue for affected businesses.
“They’re unable to move their products to market or to the people who want to buy them. There may be penalties involved for late delivery, which is no fault of the manufacturer. A lot of individual Canadians also rely on Via Rail for transportation,” he said.
Other than rail, there are not a lot of other existing options for transportation in Canada, especially for bulk commodities like lumber and oil, Hirsch said. If the demonstrations do spread out over months, he said the nation’s GDP will see lower growth rates.
“Any time there’s disruption to the norm, it’s going to cost businesses, unfortunately.”
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A majority of certain goods and services are transported either to or from Alberta by rail, affecting a variety of industries including petrochemical, agriculture, chlorine and propane, explained Ken Kobly, Alberta Chamber of Commerce president and CEO.
"For the sake of the economy, safety and security, we need to come to a resolution here fairly quickly," Kobly said.
It's also a question of how the blockades will impact the reputation of Canadian suppliers to international markets. Currently there are more than 40 ships docked outside of the Port of Vancouver waiting to either load or unload.
"I've been reading stories from the Vancouver and Halifax ports that some of those ships are being diverted to U.S. ports instead. The issue with that is, once they get diverted to U.S. ports, [companies] could see that as a more dependable port for them. You may not see them come back to Vancouver or Halifax."
Even if blockades are cleared from rail lines, dealing with the backlog afterward will take some time, Kobly said.
With 80 per cent of products produced in the Heartland moving out by rail, industrial companies within Alberta's Industrial Heartland will face challenges importing or exporting product. The Alberta Industrial Heartland Association's (AIHA) capital investment attraction efforts are also being impacted.
"Any interruption or uncertainty with respect to rail logistics in Alberta's Industrial Heartland does have an impact on the ability to attract new investment into this region," said Mark Plamondon, executive director of AIHA.
"The longer that interruptions to the logistics rail networks occur, the greater uncertainty becomes for investors when they're looking for their next capital investment. It's critically important."
