Groups representing Canada’s farm and agrifood sectors want to see an “immediate” end to multiple border blockades thrown up in recent weeks by protestors in three provinces — while the auto sector has secured a court order that one blockade be taken down.
The Canadian Federation of Agriculture, Canadian Agri-Food Trade Alliance, Canadian Cattlemen’s Association, National Cattle Feeders’ Association, Canadian Pork Council, Canadian Meat Council, Canadian Produce Marketing Association and Canadian Horticultural Council signed onto a joint request Friday.
The ag groups’ request follows border blockades set up at three of Canada’s major land ports for U.S. cross-border trade: Coutts, Alta., southeast of Lethbridge; Emerson, Man., south of Winnipeg; and Windsor, Ont., where access to the Ambassador Bridge connecting that city and Detroit has been blockaded.
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The blockades were mounted in tandem with a now-weeks-long demonstration in Ottawa concerning current federal COVID-19 vaccine mandates for cross-border truckers, among other grievances related to pandemic-related public health policy and federal politics.
While single lanes of northbound and southbound traffic had been allowed to resume at Coutts — the longest-running border blockade of the three — that formation was again shut tight as of Friday, preventing any vehicles from crossing.
At Emerson, as of Friday, Manitoba RCMP reported emergency vehicles and “some agriculture transports” have been able to get through that blockade, but “otherwise there is no traffic flow in the area” and motorists are asked to avoid the Emerson area if possible.
No tickets have yet been issued at Emerson and no arrests yet made, RCMP said. However, Chief Superintendent Rob Hill said Friday, “let me stress that proper use of police discretion should not be confused with lack of enforcement.”
Police, he said, “always need to assess the situation at ground level and that may require us to wait for a lower-risk opportunity to do enforcement rather than inflame the situation.”
At Windsor, meanwhile, an Ontario Superior Court judge on Friday granted an injunction sought by the Automotive Parts Manufacturers’ Association (APMA) to prevent “any persons having notice of the (court) order” from blocking the Ambassador Bridge or any access to the bridge for 10 days starting at 7 p.m. ET Friday.
Intervenors backing the APMA’s application included the City of Windsor, Ontario’s Attorney General Doug Downey and the Canadian Vehicle Manufacturers’ Association.
The province said Friday the injunction “authorizes the police to use powers of arrest and seizure to enforce it.”
“People remain at liberty to engage in a peaceful, lawful and safe protest that does not impede or block access to the Ambassador Bridge and approaching roadways,” the city said in a release Friday.
However, news reports from the scene have shown the bridge blockade and protestors still in place after 7 p.m.
The farm and agrifood groups on Friday called for “immediate action by all parties to fully reopen Canada’s trade corridors” and for “all levels of government” to work “towards action to reinstate integral transport and trade corridors.”
Transport of fruits and vegetables, meat, food packaging, feed supplies, livestock shipments, transport equipment, and “integral inputs for agriculture and food processing” have already been “seriously impacted” by the blockades, the groups said.
These blockades are impacting the livelihoods of Canadian farm families, the further businesses they are connected to and the timely supply and delivery of essential goods.
Agriculture and food traffic between Canada and the U.S. averaged $137 million per day in 2020 alone, the groups noted, with Coutts, Emerson and Windsor serving as “key trade routes for those goods.”
On top of its status as a manufacturing and automotive sector hub, about 80 per cent of Ontario’s greenhouse vegetable industry, or about 2,600 acres, is based in the Windsor-Essex area, the city noted in its release.
“The recent blockades have compounded the strain on a fragile system that is working to address food inflation and availability,” Ron Lemaire of the CPMA said in the ag groups’ statement.
“As trade between Canada and the United States relies heavily on open and fluid transportation corridors, it is essential all levels of government work together to address these issues and allow for the uninterrupted flow of perishable goods with our largest trading partner,” he said, referring to the U.S.
Canadian Pork Council chair Rick Bergmann noted that sector’s supply chain “operates on a structured, just-in-time delivery system for animal feed, movement of live animals across Canada and the U.S. and many more critical materials.”
Kinks in that supply chain, he said, “impact producers’ mental health and potentially the health and welfare of the animals we are entrusted to care for. Our industry cannot sustain any more delays.” — Glacier FarmMedia Network
