B.C. port shutdown could impact holiday shopping plans

A labour impasse that has shutdown trade at British Columbia ports could put a damper on holiday shopping plans if no resolution can be reached soon.

Thousands of containers filled with merchandise intended for stores across the country now sit stationary on docks or on cargo ships which are being diverted to other ports.

"For people whose delivery is very close to the sale of the goods, this will disrupt those business models very significantly,” said Greg Wilson, of the Retail Council of Canada.

Black Friday, the unofficial launch of the holiday shopping season, is just around the corner and Wilson says many small independent retailers rely on revenue from this time of year just to stay afloat.

"That's their Christmas inventory and it's delayed, and they can't sell it, and moreover, the increasing costs sometimes amounting to thousands of dollars a day, are costs that they have to bear,” Wilson said.

The BC Maritime Employers Association locked out about 700 foremen from ILWU Local 514 on Monday afternoon.

The move came in response to a strike notice issued by the union.

On the Vancouver Board of Trade website, a calculator estimates the value of disrupted trade in real time.

It goes up by $33 million per minute.

"Every minute that goes by is costing all of us. And it's either costing retailers and companies not being able to get the goods,” said VBOT president and CEO Bridgette Anderson. “Or in the end, the consequence is that the price of goods will go up and we'll all end up paying that."

The federal government has made mediators available but so far Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has given no indication he plans to step in and end the impasse.

"He has demonstrated a preference for negotiated settlements. I expect him to do that again,” said Hamish Telford, a political scientist at the University of the Fraser Valley. “Particularly with the NDP government here in British Columbia which would also have a preference for a negotiated settlement."

With nation-wide economic impacts rippling, that strategy may have a short shelf life.