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The cost of the Coutts blockade is starting to add up for the Alberta economy as the illegal protest hits five days.
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David MacLean, the vice-president of the Alberta and Saskatchewan division of Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters, said between 800 and 1,200 trucks cross at the Coutts-Sweetgrass entry every day.
“We know the impact is huge,” he said. “(There is) $15.9 billion in two-way trade a year at that single crossing, that’s $44 million per day. Roughly speaking, we export by the Coutts border crossing almost as much as we import.”
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Coutts is Alberta’s only 24-hour, seven-day-a-week crossing and the only one set up to handle much of the type of traffic that is now bottlenecked.
The blockade started to loosen Wednesday with a single lane of traffic open each way, as RCMP negotiations with protesters continue. MacLean said that even if the blockade ended immediately, it would likely take a week or two to clear the backlog.
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He said all industries have been affected by the blockade, which has worsened a “supply chain crisis” created by a trucker shortage, two years of pandemic and major weather events such as the B.C. floods and winter storms.
“It’s like an ongoing, slow-motion train wreck there,” said MacLean.
“I have members who were expecting delivery of critical inputs who have trucks either parked on the U.S. side of the border or diverting through North Dakota through Saskatchewan, which of course costs time and money. We have essential equipment that is vital for oil and gas and manufacturing and every sector stalled south of the border.”
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The Canadian Federation of Independent Grocers said rural communities are most affected, as they often rely on a single supplier.
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Gary Sands, the senior vice-president for the CFIG, said the overall shortage at member stores is about 25 per cent, but in rural communities it was between 30 and 35 per cent before the blockades.
“With all of the things we are facing right now, we feel we should be having food convoys, not so-called freedom convoys,” said Sands.
He noted the independent grocers operate on slim 1.5- to two-per-cent margins, and increases in the cost of shipping will invariably be passed on to consumers.
On Monday, the Canadian Meat Council tweeted about 150 loads of Canadian beef stuck at the border and the effects it could have on producers. On Wednesday, an emailed statement said they were encouraged by the progress in negotiations.
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“Hopefully this means that the backup will soon be cleared and commerce can continue,” said Marie-France MacKinnon, vice-president of public affairs for CMC.
The NDP called on the provincial government to provide emergency supports for those affected by the blockade.
Rural Economic Development and Agriculture critic Heather Sweet and Transportation critic Lorne Dach said the province should set up a program to cover uninsured costs.
“We are at a point where we are at Day 5 of a border crossing basically being held hostage, and what that means is it’s holding our economy hostage,” Sweet said.
“We’ve seen steel sitting at the border, we’ve seen agriculture products sitting at the border, forestry products are sitting at the border, tech products are sitting at the border, every single industry in Alberta that relies on our international trade with the United States has come to a stop.”
Provincial representatives did not return requests for comment.
Twitter: @JoshAldrich
'That's $44 million per day': Coutts border blockade hits Alberta economy and trade - Calgary Herald
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