Canada’s supply chain is being heavily impacted by a labor dispute at CP Rail and it’s affecting some farmers in the Ottawa area.
Michael Aube owns Rutters Elevators in Chesterville, Ont. They import roughly 20,000 metric tons of fertilizer every season, but this spring could be different.
“It’s going to be very difficult to fulfill the need to feed the world,” says Aube. “It takes x amount of fertilizer to feed these crops, to get decent yields. So far probably only at best, 40 to 50 per cent of the product, especially potash that comes from Saskatchewan, that hasn’t arrived yet. And with the early spring coming around the corner, that might be detrimental.”
A shutdown at CP Rail has brought some shipments to a halt, at a time when fertilizer is needed most.
“If we don’t get these crops in the ground, we don’t fill these silos, we don’t pass it on to our end users,” says Aube. “And then the cost of food just keeps going up and up. It’s inflation 101.”
“No doubt we are expecting our food inflation rate to reach eight per cent, probably by mid summer,” says Sylvain Charlebois, director of the agri-food analytics lab at Dalhousie University. “And if this labor dispute goes on for many, many days, we could see a new upwards cycle pushing prices even higher into the fall.”
Karen Proud, president of Fertilizer Canada says the work stoppage could not have come at a worse time.
“Fertilizers are absolutely needed at this time of year,” says Proud. “It’s seeding season. We want to make sure we have enough supply for farmers in this country and internationally to be able to make the most out of their yields.”
The Canadian Chamber of Commerce wants the federal government to step in.
“We are calling on the federal government to do what is best for Canada’s economy by acting now and tabling back to work legislation,” a statement says.
Some shipments are still making it Rutters, but if the labor dispute doesn’t end soon, Aube isn’t sure what he’s going to do.
“In all years, it’s one of those things that we never thought would happen,” says Aube. “And it’s just a chain of events that coincided to create this huge problem. Globally.”