Elgin Area Chamber Of Commerce: Canada's Exports To US Fall As Trucking Industry Faces Challenges

Press release from the Elgin Area Chamber of Commerce:

February 11, 2022

Canada's exports to the United States ended the year slightly down from the previous month while goods the country was importing from across the border ticked up.

Overall, Canada ended 2021 with a record value of exports and imports globally and its top trading country was the United States. In December, Canada's exports to the United States fell 1.4% after rising 7% in October and 5.9% in November, according to Statistics Canada.

The December drop coincided with disruptions in freight transportation in Western Canada because of flooding in British Columbia, the government reported.

Meanwhile, it's not clear if protesters, including truck drivers occupying Ottawa’s Parliament Hill this month in a so-called freedom convoy in response to the bilateral vaccine mandate, will impact 2022's trade numbers. The mandate requires all essential workers, including truck drivers, to be vaccinated.

According to a statement from the Canadian Trucking Alliance, the “vast majority of the Canadian trucking industry is vaccinated,” and many of those involved in the "freedom convoy” are not truckers.

The Canadian Trucking Alliance expressed concern about the effects of the vaccine mandates on the existing labour shortage, which it said predates the pandemic.

“The labour shortage in the trucking industry was already a significant problem before the COVID pandemic with the industry forecasting a shortfall of 55,000 drivers by the end of 2023. Current statistics show the industry is already well on its way to meeting this forecast and in the fourth quarter of 2021 has already surpassed 23,000 truck driver vacancies,” the Canadian Trucking Alliance said in the statement.

However, protesters have been blocking border crossings in Alberta and Ontario this week, and police are urging motorists to avoid the area around the Ambassador Bridge in Windsor, Ontario. Some major car manufacturing companies such as General Motors have canceled shifts at its factory in Lansing, Michigan, this week because it cannot get parts that travel across the bridge from Canada and into Detroit, according to the New York Times.

The Canada Border Service Agency reported that the number of truckers crossing into Canada fell 10.5% the week of Jan. 17-23 from the prior week, then fell 2.2% the week of Jan. 24-30.

Alain Bédard, CEO and chairman of TFI International Inc., Canada’s largest trucking company, told the Canadian Press that the vaccination mandate was “not an issue at all,” adding that January 2022 was the “best January ever for the company" with profits up more than two-thirds and revenue up 91% in the fourth quarter.

Canada’s Transport Minister Omar Alghabra said on Twitter this week that "the vaccine mandate has no measurable impact on cross-border truckers."

Source: www.CoStar.com

This press release was produced by the Elgin Area Chamber of Commerce. The views expressed here are the author’s own.