Manitoba industries grapple with transportation network severed by severe floods

The evolving crisis in southern British Columbia has severed major transportation networks used to ship products from the Port of Vancouver to the rest of Canada.

It’s a disaster unfolding in one province but it’s being felt in the supply chain right across the country.

“Essentially, as you know, that’s cut off right now whether it be by rail or whether it be by truck,” said Randy Zasitko, corporate supply chain director for Winpak, a global packaging company with a manufacturing plant located in Winnipeg that employs 700 people.

Zasitko said the flooding is putting added pressure on an already strained supply chain.

He said the company’s Winnipeg-based plant gets materials from around the globe, including through the Port of Vancouver, which it relies on to make high barrier packaging for perishable foods like the meats and cheeses you find on store shelves.

“We make stuff and products that you would see every day you go shopping, whether it’s stand-up pouches, whether it’s your bacon packages,” Zasitko said.

With the Port of Vancouver cut off from the rest of Canada, Zasitko said some of the company’s materials are now stuck sitting on ships off the coast of B.C. But the company’s dealt with significant supply chain constraints in the past and through risk assessments it’s put contingency plans in place to deal with disasters like the B.C. floods.