January 28, 2019 – The Honourable Ahmed Hussen, Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, yesterday announced the creation of the Rural and Northern Immigration Pilot, a five-year federal immigration pilot involving a small number of communities and selected provincial and territorial governments to provide newcomers, including professional truck drivers, support in settling into the local community. In media scrums, the minister expressed what the trucking industry wanted to hear about truck drivers: “(This program) is not just a temporary foreign worker program. It’s a permanent program to give permanent residency to skilled immigrants and their families.” The Minister Hussen went on to explain that immigrants will be chosen for the pilot by matching their occupational skills with the needs of their communities and could include any number of professions, from truck drivers to teachers to lab technicians. He estimated that about 3,000 people and their families could participate in the pilot. This is welcome news to address the chronic driver shortage in Canada.
January 28, 2019 – Our Toronto and Montreal offices will close early today to allow our team members to get home safely. A severe winter storm is currently hitting these regions and white out conditions are expected to last throughout the afternoon and late evening. All customers with scheduled pickups and deliveries have been notified of the delays and our contingency plans to transport their cargo. Our phone line are still active and forwarded to our management team. If you have any urgent requests, please call us at 416.621.6800 or e-mail us at operations. We anticipate that our offices will reopen for normal business hours tomorrow.
January 24, 2019 – Due to weather conditions, we ask you to anticipate important delays during this new heavy snow episode (specifically in Quebec). While we will be doing our utmost to have all your delivery needs met, Canaan Transport cannot guarantee pick-ups or deliveries during this period as the safety and security of our drivers is paramount. If you have any questions, please contact our office at 416.621.6800. We appreciate your patience and cooperation. We recommend the following information lines for additional reference: Quebec 511 and Ontario 511. We thank you for your understanding.
January 21, 2019 – Rolling strikes by workers at the Hutchison Ports Australia box terminals in Sydney and Brisbane started at 6:00 a.m. (Australian Eastern Standard Time) on January 17 and are causing landside logistics chaos. Truck turnaround times have increased to four hours. We anticipate that these strikes will continue into early this week. Customers with affected cargo will be contacted by our team.
January 20, 2019 – With the arrival of the year’s first extreme cold weather, Canaan Transport is implementing its emergency winter procedures. Airports in Quebec are now closed and will likely remain backlogged for the first few days of the week. Border crossings in Quebec are closed to heavy traffic which will delay trucking shipments. We ask for your patience as we work through the delays caused by the winter weather. All offices are open and we will reach out to affected customers to provide updates. If you have any questions or urgent matters, please call us at 416.621.6800 or operations.
January 14, 2019 – The provisional start to the new CPTPP agreement has garnered much attention in Canada in the past week as a trade mission for Canadian beef producers to Japan may yield some long term gains. Currently, Japan severely limits the importation of beef products from Canada but this will change with the new agreements in place. With the continued uncertainty regarding the US-China trade situation, this is welcome news for proponents of continued global trade expansion.
January 6, 2019 – The Yantian Express, a Hapag-Lloyd container ship with a size of about 7,200 TEU is currently adrift and its crew evacuated about 1,500 kms from Halifax, NS Canada. There is an uncontrolled fire on board the vessel as it was en route from Colombo, Sri Lanka. Canaan Transport has already advised all known customers with cargo aboard this vessel. Our advice is to immediately contact cargo insurers as it is likely that if the ship is lost, then General Average will be declared for all cargo.
January 4, 2019 – As announced in the national press, longshoremen at the Port of Montreal have voted overwhelmingly in favour of giving union leadership a strike mandate. This should not come as a surprise to anyone familiar with the situation – and it does not mean that there will be a strike – or at least not in the immediate future. The negotiation process between the Maritime Employers’ Association (MEA) and the Longshoremen’s Union, CUPE Local 375 started on September 18, 2018. The MEA and Longshoremen’s Union are presently in mediation and dates have been scheduled in January.
On November 5, 2018, CIFFA, of which Canaan Transport is a member, wrote to the President, Canada Industrial Relations Board (CIRB) in support of the MEA’s request to have Port of Montreal operations declared an ‘essential service.’ CIFFA has learned from the MEA that hearing dates have been scheduled in February 2019 from the 4th to the 15th. Until the decision of the CIRB, which will be after the hearings are completed, the parties do not have the right to strike or lock out. So – take a breath.
There have been ongoing congestion, severe challenges with service and wait times and the not-so-secret possibility of a strike at the port. 2017 was a banner year at the Port of Montreal and the first three quarters of 2018 continued in that upward trajectory, with total TEUs at the port up to 1,395,165 versus 1,276,695 in the same period in 2017. Business is way up, terminals are hiring like crazy and the current labour contract, negotiated in 2013, expired in December.
It remains the case that the Port of Montreal and the MEA are optimistic for a negotiated settlement: “A spokesman for the employers association said negotiations are going well and its members are surprised by the union’s statements,” while it also remains the case that the union is using everything in its arsenal, including the strike mandate, to fight for the best deal for its members. The mandate to strike was expected, and is usually a normal course of action in the event that negotiations reach the point of impasse. Negotiations are continuing, and there is no reason to suggest that the right to strike will be exercised at this time.
The recent vote and the strike mandate are real and everyone must take these developments into consideration as they plan routings and make carrier selections. Members should explore all options available and plan prudently, watching the situation carefully over the next few weeks.
December 31, 2018 – On the eve of the new year, the US government shut down is now having an impact on cargo operations throughout the United States. We are now hearing of reports of 5-10 day delays for customs clearance at some ports and airports. In addition, cargo screening and TSA related activities are also being affected. Canaan Transport will continue to update the situation as required.
December 24, 2018 – With the US Government shut down, we are advising all customers with cargo to and from the USA to be prepared for potential delays with US Customs Border and Protection and also airport and seaport delays. Depending on the length of such a shutdown, cargo may be forced to sit and wait until furloughed workers are back on the job.