Rod Nickel and Nia Wilkins

WINNIPEG, Manitoba (Reuters) – The massive rains that unleashed floods and mudslides https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/receding-waters-help-flood-hit-canadian-town-avoid-disaster-2021-11-18 in the Canadian province of British Columbia exposed the country’s supply chain vulnerability as crucial railways and roads were severed from the country’s biggest port.

One storm can quickly shut down an engine of one of the largest exporting countries in the world, highlighting Canada’s economic fragility. The majority of Canadian exports, which account for nearly one-third of the country’s GDP, travel to the Pacific coast to reach Asian markets.

However, the supply chain route is dependent on 2 rail lines and 1 or 2 highways from the Rocky Mountains to Vancouver.

Barry Prentice of the University of Manitoba’s supply chain management department stated that “Geology gave Canada very few options” and that funnelling large amounts of foreign exports down to Fraser Canyon increased our vulnerability.

Fraser Canyon, which stretches between B.C.It stretches across B.C.’s interior plateau, from the Coast Mountains to lower mainland. The storm caused some of the worst highway washes. It was also ravaged by a wildfire this summer that destroyed a town https://www.reuters.com/business/environment/wildfire-forces-evacuation-residents-small-western-canada-town-2021-07-01 and closed road and rail routes.

He said that a third track would not be possible through the canyon at a distance of 150 km (93 miles) north of Vancouver. The current tracks have been “literally cut into the canyon wall.”

Canada has developed an adaption plan for climate change. The historic flooding this week in Canada underscored the necessity to safeguard export routes, Jonathan Wilkinson from Canadian Natural (NYSE) Resources stated.

Wilkinson stated that “what this week has revealed us is that some of these issues around export routes and around goods routes…are possibly more important than we had ever assumed” to Reuters.

FLOODS AND MORE DRY

Simon Donner, professor of Climateology at University of British Columbia said that British Columbia’s inability to deal with extreme weather is a problem.

He said that these were the rainfall amounts you’d expect to find in a tropical storm, and not November in Canada.

B.C. is likely to see more disruptions like these. According to Wade Sobkowich (executive director, Western Grain Elevator Association), Canada will be forced to export more commodities east and south, than it receives from Asian markets.

Already, some work has been done to strengthen Canada’s international economy.

Prince Rupert, northern B.C. The port at Prince Rupert in northern B.C. plans to triple its container capacities by 2030, making it a more feasible, but smaller option for shipping to Asia.

In 2017, Canada’s Senate released a report https://sencanada.ca/content/sen/committee/421/BANC/reports/CorridorStudy(Final-Printing)_e.pdf on the feasibility of a 7,000-kilometer northern infrastructure corridor running from the Pacific Coast, across the boreal forest past Hudson (NYSE:) Bay and into northern Quebec.

According to the report, such a project can boost exports and take many decades to finish.

Although climate change can cause problems for shippers it may also provide solutions.

Prentice suggested that Churchill, Manitoba’s Hudson Bay port, which is not used much, could become more economically viable, as melting glaciers allow for shipping lanes.

Bob Ballantyne is a senior advisor at Freight Management Association. He said that ships traveling through Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Seaway might also experience fewer days before the ice stops the route in winter.

However, the solutions are not a long-term solution.

Climate professor Donner said, “We’re in a strange place that climate change will lead to more drought and flooding.” “The problem with British Columbia, Canada, and around the globe is that we have adapted to a past climate.”