Today, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau convened the Incident Response Group with ministers and senior officials to discuss the labour disruption in British Columbia’s ports.
The Group was briefed on the latest developments in the province, where union leadership has served notice that thousands of port workers will resume strike action on Saturday. This decision came after union leadership failed to give union members an opportunity to vote on the tentative settlement that was agreed to last week by both the union and the employer following weeks of federal mediation and negotiation.
The Group discussed the impact of the situation, which is creating severe disruptions to Canada’s largest export and import gateway to the world. Previous strike action earlier this month already froze billions of dollars’ worth of cargo from moving in and out of harbours, causing serious harm to our economy, Canada’s reputation as a trading partner, and Canadian jobs.
The Prime Minister stressed the critical importance of resuming operations in our ports as soon as possible. Workers and employers across Canada – and all Canadians – cannot face further disruption. He asked ministers and senior officials their advice toward achieving this goal and directed them to pursue all available options to ensure the stability of our supply chains and to protect Canadian jobs and our economy.