Canada - The strike and uncertainty at BC's ports continues to impact throughout of the supply chain.
 
Elizabeth Hucker, the assistant vice president of marketing and sales for bulk with CPKC says the repeated start-up and shutdown of freight operations can not continue.
 
"Each additional strike day or day of uncertainty has a compounding impact on the timeline for the supply chain recovery, which will extend well into 2024. And there may be impacts for grain transportation this fall due to some of the ongoing uncertainty and resulting customer decisions to curtail rail traffic. CPKC has issued furlough notices to approximately 200 employees across Canada."
 
She notes CPKC terminals are all open and there are no temporary embargoes in place relating to the port situation.
 
With the start of the new crop year set to begin 1 Aug 2023 farmers in many areas, where they can, are looking at an early harvest due to the dry conditions.
 
Hucker says with that in mind CPKC is working with its grain customers to get an idea of this year's production.
 
"We're actively sitting down with our grain customers to understand the crop and where the demand will be as the harvest comes off. Based upon the information and the forecasts that we get from our customers, we work with our operations team to pre-spot empty trains based on where the demand will be. As we're monitoring the crop and understanding where demand will be, we're also understanding what is required for some of the ranchers to feed the herds that are in Alberta and Saskatchewan."
 
During the 2021 drought, CPKC moved a significant amount of corn into Alberta to feed livestock.
 
She points out they are working to understand if that need will be there again, and if so how they can help ease the situation this year.
 
Glenda-Lee Vossler.