(Photo: Sarah McCarthy)
You can blame empty store shelves on the protest convoy winding its way across the country, but it’s just one of the strains on the supply chain.
Gary Sands, the Senior Vice President of the Canadian Federation of Independent Grocers, says ongoing issues caused by COVID-19 along the entire supply chain are contributing factors.
Sands says now is a bad time to do anything that’s going to make it harder for people to get what they need.
“Whether it’s the trucker mandate or having a convoy that’s snarling traffic and everything, we just don’t think that’s the right time to do this.”
Sands says we’re in the midst of supply shortages, labour shortages, winter weather, and some grocery stores have seen prices increase by as much as 35 per cent.
He says a protest convoy blocking traffic across the country isn’t helping alleviate any of that.
“Our view is that it should be a food convoy not a Freedom Convoy.”
Sands says they are in support of vaccines for truckers, and everyone working in our important food supply chains, but it was also the wrong time for the government to drop the exception for unvaccinated truck drivers.
He says we seem to be at the peak of the Omicron wave, and in just a few weeks time the food supply should be much more stable than it is now.
The hardest foods to keep in stock? Fresh fruits and vegetables, then soups, cereals, and spices.
However, Sands says that’s not a reason to go out and panic buy.
He says shelves will have what you need again soon and overbuying just makes the supply issues worse.
