Atlantic Container Line plans to take a pass on Halifax while rail transportation in Canada remains stopped in its tracks.
“It’s starting this coming weekend,” said Andrew Abbott, CEO of the shipper, during a phone interview Thursday from corporate headquarters in New Jersey.
“Until now we’ve been keeping our fingers crossed, keeping the same thing running, but all that’s happened is the number of boxes, the number of import containers in Halifax, has just grown and grown.
“Meanwhile, there’s nothing coming back, so we’ve run out of equipment in Ontario. A customer who wants to make a booking now doesn’t have any containers because the ones he was going to be loading are still filled, sitting at the terminal in Halifax.”
The blockades started Feb. 6 to protest the Coastal Gaslink natural gas pipeline planned to run through Wet’suwet’en territory in British Columbia. Hereditary chiefs dispute the proposed pipeline route and the consultation process.
“What’s happened is this stupid disruption has brought Eastern Canadian transportation to a grinding halt,” Abbott said.
“Everybody figured it was going to last a couple of days and we’d get back to normal. Well, it’s dragged on two weeks, and most of our customers out in Ontario and the U.S. Midwest are saying, ‘Guys, I can’t wait any longer. I got to do something. My factory is now running out of parts. You’ve got to move it.’
“So, what we’ve done is we’ve simply bypassed Halifax on our service. Normally what happens is a ship comes in from Europe, comes to Halifax first, goes down to New York, Baltimore, Norfolk, then comes back to Halifax and goes back out again.”
Without containers and cargo coming from the west, Abbott said, it doesn’t make sense for the company to stop in Halifax.
“Ninety per cent of what we lift in and out is from Ontario, Central Canada, Midwest U.S. . . . It’s highly dependent upon that down-line rail traffic.
“CN has always done a great job, and we’ve been able to move a lot of U.S. business via the Halifax gateway and the customers loved it. It was very easy to do, but now that whole thing has stopped for a prolonged period and I’ve got no comfort that it’s going to end anytime soon because the government’s not doing anything.”
Whenever the dispute is settled, it’s the rail company that’s going to have the biggest challenge getting back on track, said Abbott.
“CN is going to have the problem. They’re going to have a backlog of containers. You’re going to have two weeks of boxes sitting at the port, which they now have to move out on the trains down line.
“Our operation is not going to be that much affected, other than the fact that we’ve had to reroute everything and the headaches of now moving via U.S. ports. Our routings were all pretty much automated; you push a button and the whole things flows. To change the normal routing into a new one has been a lot of headaches and more cost, even.”
The shipping executive had nothing but praise for the line’s partners. He was not as generous toward the federal Liberals, suggesting that inaction has affected the lives of many.
“If anything, the government’s got a black eye on this one for letting it linger on so long,” he said.
“There are so many innocent people who are caught up, who have nothing to do with the dispute, yet they’re paying the price,” said Abbott.
“It’s really cut and dried: It makes no sense, and I’m hoping somebody can get off their tails and fix it.”
Abbott said the disruption won’t affect ACL’s perception of Halifax as a port of call.
“We’ve been there for 53 years, OK? Our ships call there twice a week. We basically consider Halifax our Canadian home.
“A lot of water’s gone under the bridges for many years.”
