Atlantic business, trucking industry concerned how CBSA strike could impact their bottom line

There was a short lineup at the United States-Canada border near Woodstock, N.B., around noontime Monday.

However, it was nothing compared to what some say could happen if Canadian Border Service Agency (CBSA) workers and Ottawa can’t come to an agreement.

The 9,000 CBSA workers have been without a contract for two years, and 96 per cent of them have voted in favour of strike action – which could legally happen as early as Thursday.

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It’s created some concern among those whose business it is to move and sell goods across the international line.

“Really, it’s just a perfect storm, so to speak,” said Chris McKee, executive director at the Atlantic Provincial Truckers Association.

“We're continuing to grapple with post-pandemic volatility in the supply chain on top of ongoing inflationary pressures on Canadians. We're also facing the ongoing threat of rail strikes in our country. And, you know, there's that lingering threat of a labour dispute or labour disruptions at the Port of Montreal as well.”

The two sides were in mediated negotiations Monday to try and find an agreement. The treasury board has said 90 per cent of front-line border officers are designated as essential, which means they can’t stop working during a strike.

But they could work to rule.

“If you work to rule and start to ask all the questions you're entitled to ask, and you start slowing down those trucks, going through and checking the manifest of all the goods on board, you have a huge impact on those goods crossing the border every day,” said Ian Lee, a professor at Carleton University’s Sprott School of Business.

John Slipp owns the Woodstock Duty Free shop and Atlantic Travel Centre at the U.S.-Canada border.

He’s hopeful there won’t be too many disruptions if a strike were to go ahead, but remains concerned about the impact it could have on business.

“There's two sides and they have to do their thing. I can only hope that there's no negative impact for my customers,” he said. “The worst would be if the headline news, day after day after day is border staff are working to rule, and there's lineups and there's problems. And that negative news trickles down to my customers, and they don't want to come to the border.”

McKee feels the same.

“The government of Canada may need to be prepared to intervene here if we do start seeing significant delays to our supply chain,” he said. “That would obviously require striking a fair balance between the right to collective bargaining and preventing our international and domestic supply chain from, quite frankly, being transformed into a chaotic mess.”

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