herbie herbie:
My gripe of the day is that the National Post, in it's usual ignorance is reporting that "BC" is cut off from the rest of Canada.... as if the Lower Mainland = BC...
Stores here are running out - but will get supplied from Alberta warehouses instead of Langley ones. People are already panic buying though. Plus it's not like we don't have a container port and railway in Prince Rupert to get crap from China.
While you're right to gripe, the NP is partially correct - Vancouver is North America's 4th busiest port, so the severing of road and rail links to the rest of Canada will definitely impact domestic supply chains. Further, while PR has a port of its own, it has roughly 1/3 of the annual cargo capacity that Vancouver does, so even if it has spare capacity, how much can it really serve?
You're also correct that there are other ways to get goods to people even with all the devastated infrastructure in BC, those methods will cost more than the usual routes and add costs to goods, fueling inflation.
The biggest issue is that a lot of goods for Christmas may get delayed until the new year, which will cost corporations more, which of course they will pass onto us consumers.
Now I don't really care if I can't get something from China, but there will be a lot of griping from people who fall into the 'I want it now dammit!' crowd.
CKA Uber 
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