In the port of Montreal, colored containers stack on top of each other. The storage space will soon run out. At the other end of the country on the Pacific coast, freighters are waiting at the entrance to the port of Vancouver, they can no longer load or unload. The maritime authorities plan in the short term to divert them to the American ports of Seattle or Los Angeles. Same scenario in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
Since February 6, the dispute over a pipeline route, which plans to cross the native territory of the Wet’suwet’s in British Columbia, has caused a rail blockage that is going to paralyze the economy of the country. The hereditary chiefs of this First Nation, who consider themselves sole sovereign over their ancestral territories, do not recognize the legitimacy of the agreement concluded between the Coastal GasLink company and their elected chiefs. They received active support from other indigenous communities.
For more than a fortnight, punctually helped by environmental activists and students, the natives have erected makeshift roadblocks on a few key points in the network which have slowed down or even stopped rail transport. Canadian National, which owns a large part of the country's rail network, has already laid off 450 workers temporarily after canceling more than 400 freight trains. Via Rail, which operates passenger transportation, has cut all of its Toronto / Montreal / Ottawa connections, estimating the number of passengers affected by more than 100,000. A thousand railway workers were also temporarily thanked.
In the ports are piled up containers full of perishable products, medicines and raw materials
"Canada's rail network is the backbone of the country's economy", explains Jacques Roy, professor of transport management and logistics at HEC Montreal. "More than the truck, more expensive, slower and which lacks manpower, the rail provides most of the freight, it also serves to connect all the major ports. " Ports where full containers are piled up today: perishable products (brands are panicking about the imminent shortage of ketchup), medicines (no stock-out to date) and raw materials for businesses. A Quebec chemical company, for example, suspended its activity in its water treatment plant for lack of chlorine, when farmers worried about a possible shortage of propane.
