The Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) strike is drawing fire from Canadian agricultural commodity groups — mostly concerned with how grain transportation could be disrupted.
The Western Canadian Wheat Growers Association issued a strongly worded press release on Tuesday after striking picketers targeted Vancouver’s Cascadia grain terminal, co-owned by Viterra and Richardson International.
“A strike is one thing, but to intentionally target a port that is critical to the lives of grain farmers and to the entire Canadian economy is the height of reckless irresponsibility,” association president Gunter Jochum said.
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Other commodity groups across the country had more measured responses to PSAC’s strike, which began April 19. On the day workers walked off the job, Keystone Agricultural Producers (KAP) president Jill Verwey weighed in with her organization’s concerns.
“KAP respects the rights of Canadian workers to collective action,” she said in an April 19 press release. “However, this strike could negatively impact grain shipments, resulting in backlogs and restricted cash flow for farmers, as well as increased demurrage costs for grain companies. Restrictions in cash flow could hamper a farmer’s ability to market their remaining 2022 crop as well as their ability to purchase inputs for the 2023 crop year.”
KAP expressed their concerns in writing to both the government of Canada and PSAC prior to the strike action and called on both to make sure adequate contingencies were in place to minimize negative impacts to the grain handling system.
The Agricultural Producers Association of Saskatchewan (APAS) also weighed in, arguing that the supply chain has yet to fully recover from the impacts of COVID-19 and that a prolonged strike could be a major blow to producers.
“Delayed inspections will cause backlogs at ports. Every day a ship must wait means demurrage charges to grain companies, and these costs always make their way to the farmer,” APAS president Ian Boxall said.
To date, shipping hasn’t been dramatically affected. According to Mark Hemmes, president of Quorum Corporation (Canada’s Grain Monitor), while picketing at Cascadia was an inconvenience, it was limited to that location, only lasted a few hours and the impact was not significant.
“It’s the only terminal on the south shore where the entrance to the terminal property is outside the port security gates,” Hemmes said.
Terminals in Thunder Bay and Prince Rupert are also within port security gates, he added, and while some picketers have port passes, he says it’s unlikely they would use them for picketing.
Inspection impacts
However, it’s not just picketing that’s at issue. Sixty-five per cent of Canadian Grain Commission (CGC) staff are on strike right now, and that includes most of the grain inspectors.
“There are some inspection staff that are not in a strike position, but those are limited to some managers in the regions and inspection specialists across the country,” said CGC spokesperson Rémi Gosselin. “So that means that the CGC’s provision of official inspection and certification of grain exports is significantly impacted.”
To minimize the impacts on grain producers, companies and grain exports in general, the CGC has developed contingency plans allowing inspection services to continue. “We’ve allowed grain companies to temporarily collect samples on our behalf and then provide those to us so that we can provide final inspections and certification on grain shipments so that exports meet importing countries requirements,” Gosselin said.
According to Hemmes, those provisions appear to be working.
“So far, the ship-loading stats don’t show anything in the way of delays to vessel departures or loading,” he said. “The CGC contingent that is managing the inspections seems to be keeping up, and between the terminals and the CGC, they have procedures in place that ensure inspection protocols are being maintained.”
However, Hemmes said it’s a heavy burden to bear for those doing the inspections. “Those managers are going to need a holiday when this is done,” he said.
Jochum said he’s pleased with the work the CGC has done to ensure grain continues to move, but he fears that if the strike is prolonged, cracks could begin to show.
Time for a third party?
The wheat growers’ association has long argued that the Canada Grain Act should authorize third-party weighing and inspection of vessels leaving Canadian waters. Jochum said this strike is a good time to revive the issue and could help insulate the supply chain from future disruptions.
The call for third-party inspectors to replace federal inspectors is a hotly debated topic. The issue was raised a number of times during the consultation surrounding the current Canada Grain Act review.
The What We Heard: Canada Grain Act Review Consultations report, released in 2021, said, “While it was unanimous that the CGC should continue to have a role in the setting of quality standards, approximately half of respondents that discussed outward inspection were in favour of the CGC accrediting and overseeing third-party inspection companies rather than performing inspections directly.”
The wheat growers say that third-party inspectors are already in place to meet the demands of overseas customers, and there is therefore no need to duplicate those services.
The other side of the coin notes that the CGC stamp of approval is part of why Canadian grain quality has an excellent reputation.
But Jochum is concerned that if overworked managers are unable to keep up in the face of a prolonged strike, that reputation could be tarnished anyway.
“The problem is they are swamped. They are working seven days a week,” he said. “If this strike goes on for any length of time, eventually someone is going to drop the ball along the way.”
— Don Norman reports for the Manitoba Co-operator from Winnipeg.
