Northern Development Initiative Trust CEO Joel McKay is breathing a sigh of relief the port strike seems to have reached a resolution.
A tentative four-year contract was agreed to today (Thursday) between the BC Maritime Employers Association and the Warehouse Union.
McKay told Vista Radio while the direct impact the 13-day work stoppage had in our region isn’t fully known yet, it’s nice to see some light at the end of the tunnel.
“I do recognize the impact this had on families, individuals, and the pace of business in northern BC and it’s welcomed news to be speaking about this issue today rather than yesterday.”
“Hopefully these two weeks mean there hasn’t been such an interruption to our local businesses that rely on key inputs, supplies, and parts for them to keep up and keep operating. Hopefully, that two-week interruption hasn’t really set their summers off.”
McKay admitted there were some nervous moments especially with Canfor announcing a temporary halt of operations at its Northwood Pulp Mill in PG.
“This is not only an impact on our businesses and manufacturers that are trying to get their commodities exported to markets and what that means for them and then that translates what we saw with Canfor, which had a direct impact on employees.”
Simply put, people in our region and across Canada are getting well-versed in supply chain issues, dating back to the pandemic.
“I think the public is more broadly aware of what it looks like when you can’t get access to goods or when you can’t sell your goods to markets abroad and how reliant this country, this province, and this region are on that global trading relationship.”
Operations at west coast ports are expected to resume as soon as possible.
Roughly 7,400 dock workers began their strike on July 1st.