Conservatives Openly Trying to Create Food Shortages

[Nedroj]

No empty shelves here. Anyone have a first-hand account of empty shelves? We’re 9 days in to the border vaccine mandate…how long do we have to wait before we accept that the sky isn’t actually falling?

I was in West Kelowna's Walmart last weekend. Hardly any beef and chicken breasts were out on the shelves.

I've been to SuperStore over the last month and numerous times there has been a very limited amount of Milk in the coolers. I had to buy 2 1liter cartons all 2L and 4L were sold out.

Its doesn't seem to be extremely widespread or consistent from day to day but it is a complete lie to say the grocery shelves are never empty when many of us have literally seen this multiple times in the last month. Well after the highways have been repaired.

[Catri]

No empty shelves here. Anyone have a first-hand account of empty shelves? We’re 9 days in to the border vaccine mandate…how long do we have to wait before we accept that the sky isn’t actually falling?

I was in West Kelowna's Walmart last weekend. Hardly any beef and chicken breasts were out on the shelves.

I've been to SuperStore over the last month and numerous times there has been a very limited amount of Milk in the coolers. I had to buy 2 1liter cartons all 2L and 4L were sold out.

Its doesn't seem to be extremely widespread or consistent from day to day but it is a complete lie to say the grocery shelves are never empty when many of us have literally seen this multiple times in the last month. Well after the highways have been repaired.

I absolutely concede that I should have been more specific about what I meant. There are obviously issues with the supply chain and sort of spotty shortages from time to time over the last few months. We're all aware of that, but in my locale, there has been no noticeable change in the stores ability to stock over the last 10 days.

What I was specifically pointing out was miles of completely bare shelves that are being spread by meme for political points ostensibly in support of the anti-vax trucker tantrum. It's particularly disheartening to see someone like Jason Kenney, who as a provincial leader, if there is an actual food shortage, should be encouraging people to stay calm and try not to panic buy or hoard (as our leaders in BC did during the floods) instead of sharing questionable information about desolate grocery store shelves meant to rile people up.

[PoplarSoul]

I was in West Kelowna's Walmart last weekend. Hardly any beef and chicken breasts were out on the shelves.

I've been to SuperStore over the last month and numerous times there has been a very limited amount of Milk in the coolers. I had to buy 2 1liter cartons all 2L and 4L were sold out.

Its doesn't seem to be extremely widespread or consistent from day to day but it is a complete lie to say the grocery shelves are never empty when many of us have literally seen this multiple times in the last month. Well after the highways have been repaired.

We don't import meat or dairy products from the United States.
A very minimal amount.
Conservatives like Mr. Kenney blaming the mandate for the shortage of food is absolutely ridiculous.
On his tweet he shows 3 pictures of empty meat sections.
Alberta beef can't make it across the Canada-USA border?
Bottom left picture, one shelf was empty. Shelf for bananas or pineapples? Check the back of the photo. Full shelves.
Bottom right picture. Not sure what it was supposed to be.

[crookedmember]

I was in West Kelowna's Walmart last weekend. Hardly any beef and chicken breasts were out on the shelves.

I've been to SuperStore over the last month and numerous times there has been a very limited amount of Milk in the coolers. I had to buy 2 1liter cartons all 2L and 4L were sold out.

Its doesn't seem to be extremely widespread or consistent from day to day but it is a complete lie to say the grocery shelves are never empty when many of us have literally seen this multiple times in the last month. Well after the highways have been repaired.

The Fraser Valley was recently flooded and three highways were washed out. Since virtually all Milk, eggs, chicken and beef come from within Canada, this was likely due to the weather rather than the 10% of truckers who are not permitted to enter the United States.

This thread is about conservative politicians lying about shortages to incite panic buying.

[Gone_Fishin]

We don't import meat or dairy products from the United States.

This statistic shows the volume share of beef imported to Canada in 2020, by country of origin. In that year, 56.32 percent of beef imported to Canada originated from the United States and 8.55 percent came from Uruguay. https://www.statista.com/statistics/712 ... re-canada/

About $1.1 billion of imported beef into Canada in 2018.

How much milk does Canada import?
Trade Overview
In 2020, imports of dairy products totaled 218,787,539kg ($957.2 million) and exports reached 190,884,997kg ($486.4 million).
https://agriculture.canada.ca/en/canada ... try-glance

[rustled]

It's interesting to see people assuming that because we don't import various products, it doesn't matter whether or not the trucks are doing their usual routes. Some of the grocery runs from the warehouses at the West Coast used to be picked up by trucks that had come up the I-5 that day, dropped their trailer in the Lower Mainland, and looped back to the Interior for a load to go south.

I can't say whether or not this is still the case. Point is, the logistics in trucking dispatch aren't the simple matter some here seem to be assuming.

While some of the impacts of chain reactions put in motion by changing the trucking regulations show up immediately, some of the impacts that directly affect consumers take longer to show up.

If we are to believe the politicians who put these regulations into effect actually understand the most likely consequences of their actions, there is every reason to also believe these politicians are aware of how they can distance themselves from those consequences.

[PoplarSoul]

We don't import meat or dairy products from the United States.

This statistic shows the volume share of beef imported to Canada in 2020, by country of origin. In that year, 56.32 percent of beef imported to Canada originated from the United States and 8.55 percent came from Uruguay. https://www.statista.com/statistics/712 ... re-canada/

About $1.1 billion of imported beef into Canada in 2018.

How much milk does Canada import?
Trade Overview
In 2020, imports of dairy products totaled 218,787,539kg ($957.2 million) and exports reached 190,884,997kg ($486.4 million).
https://agriculture.canada.ca/en/canada ... try-glance

Quote me properly.
I said very minimal amount.

[Nedroj]

I absolutely concede that I should have been more specific about what I meant. There are obviously issues with the supply chain and sort of spotty shortages from time to time over the last few months. We're all aware of that, but in my locale, there has been no noticeable change in the stores ability to stock over the last 10 days.

What I was specifically pointing out was miles of completely bare shelves that are being spread by meme for political points ostensibly in support of the anti-vax trucker tantrum. It's particularly disheartening to see someone like Jason Kenney, who as a provincial leader, if there is an actual food shortage, should be encouraging people to stay calm and try not to panic buy or hoard (as our leaders in BC did during the floods) instead of sharing questionable information about desolate grocery store shelves meant to rile people up.

I agree that the meme/tweet wasnt well thought out. but the point is valid. much like IH firing unvaccinated Nurses and then reporting having to cancel surgeries due to being extremely understaffed, would it not be in the best interests of ALL Canadians for there to be as many Nurses as possible? Unvaccinated doesn't mean they have COVID and a simple Rapid test prior to starting their shift would negate the risks along with being properly trained on how to use PPE.

The same with the truckers. Have you seen the life of a long haul trucker? they dont stay in hotels, they dont go site seeing in the cities they drive through. They literally stay in their rigs until they are back home. Most of them dont even unload their trailers. So where is the risk in them not being vaccinated? and if everyone around is vaccinated ie border officers, etc then again where is the risk?

Why make it more difficult to get goods to their destinations?

The Fraser Valley was recently flooded and three highways were washed out. Since virtually all Milk, eggs, chicken and beef come from within Canada, this was likely due to the weather rather than the 10% of truckers who are not permitted to enter the United States.

This thread is about conservative politicians lying about shortages to incite panic buying.

And Im calling out the liberals that are claiming that our grocery shelves are NEVER empty.
Ive provided examples where shelves were empty or very limited in products and this is just last weekend so weather and washed-out highways wouldn't have applied.

Also our beef comes from Alberta and none of those highways were washed out. So why the lack of Beef?

Im not saying this is because of the 10% of truckers but at the end of the day where it comes from or how our food gets here doesnt matter to the general public. What matters is we are seeing bare grocery shelves for the first time in my 40 years of living.

[crookedmember]

From Premier Kenney's post.

We can safely assume that "100% Canadian Beef" sold in Alberta stores comes from Alberta and is out of stock for reasons other than the small minority of truckers who don't want to do their jobs.

[fluffy]

It might be a silly question, but there must be a few vaccinated truckers around, aren't there ? Why not put them on the border routes and leave the anti-vaxxers on domestic routes ?

[Catri]

...much like IH firing unvaccinated Nurses and then reporting having to cancel surgeries due to being extremely understaffed, would it not be in the best interests of ALL Canadians for there to be as many Nurses as possible? Unvaccinated doesn't mean they have COVID and a simple Rapid test prior to starting their shift would negate the risks along with being properly trained on how to use PPE.

This is a little off topic...but firing the unvaxxed nurses had little to do with the cancelled/delayed surgeries. As someone waiting for surgeries almost since the start of the pandemic, I've been paying attention to it since day 1 and can tell you that "non-urgent" surgeries were delayed and cancelled well before the vaccine requirements were in place, even before the vaccines were available. It's easy to scapegoat the mandates, but reality is that if everyone had gotten vaccinated when it was first available, we would be faring much better in terms of hospitalizations...that's not to say that IHA doesn't have larger and longer standing issues that need addressing as well to fix our healthcare...just that I disagree with your premise that vaccine mandates had any meaningful effect on surgical wait times.

[rustled]

It might be a silly question, but there must be a few vaccinated truckers around, aren't there ? Why not put them on the border routes and leave the anti-vaxxers on domestic routes ?

Not everyone driving a truck domestically can legally enter the US. Those who can may not already have a passport or a FAST.

Not everyone driving a truck domestically understands the restrictions in the various US states.

Not everyone driving a truck domestically can deal with the paperwork involved with brokerage etc., particularly when there's a foul-up at the border.

Not everyone driving a truck domestically can be away from their family responsibilities overnight, or on a different schedule than the one they're already on.

Not every driver doing a run on the prairies or Ontario's freeways is prepared for what they'd encounter running through the Chicago area, or on the I-5 through Seattle-Tacoma.

[hobbyguy]

We don't import meat or dairy products from the United States.

This statistic shows the volume share of beef imported to Canada in 2020, by country of origin. In that year, 56.32 percent of beef imported to Canada originated from the United States and 8.55 percent came from Uruguay. https://www.statista.com/statistics/712 ... re-canada/

About $1.1 billion of imported beef into Canada in 2018.

How much milk does Canada import?
Trade Overview
In 2020, imports of dairy products totaled 218,787,539kg ($957.2 million) and exports reached 190,884,997kg ($486.4 million).
https://agriculture.canada.ca/en/canada ... try-glance

Canada is a very large net exporter of beef. By about 1.6 to 1.7 billion $ net. We ain't gonna run outa beef in Canada. Yes, processing is getting disrupted by covid, and that may cause temporary kerfuffles.

Canada is not a net exporter of dairy products. We import a lot of low quality stuff like whey for processed foods, and on the high end specialty cheeses etc. However, in terms of day-to-day products like milk in fridge, cheddar cheese, butter we are self sufficient. So yup, specialty items like smoked Gouda have been spotty in supply, but not cheddar or liquid milk.

There is a huge difference between not being able to find aged smoked Gouda cheese and not being able to buy cheese. But I guess such factual nuance eludes the CPC spin masters who are looking stupider and stupider by the day.

[hobbyguy]

https://theloadstar.com/trucks-keep-rol ... e-mandate/

"Despite dire predictions of delays, it was almost business as usual for truck traffic from the US to Canada at the weekend, the first two days of new regulations that ban unvaccinated US drivers from crossing the border."

More and more evidence is coming through that indicates that the vaccine mandate has NOT impacted the flow of trucks across the border.

Interestingly, some US trucking companies report 100% vaccination rate (perhaps because they offered bonuses to drivers for getting jabbed)....

[rustled]

Canada is a very large net exporter of beef. By about 1.6 to 1.7 billion $ net. We ain't gonna run outa beef in Canada. Yes, processing is getting disrupted by covid, and that may cause temporary kerfuffles.

Canada is not a net exporter of dairy products. We import a lot of low quality stuff like whey for processed foods, and on the high end specialty cheeses etc. However, in terms of day-to-day products like milk in fridge, cheddar cheese, butter we are self sufficient. So yup, specialty items like smoked Gouda have been spotty in supply, but not cheddar or liquid milk.

There is a huge difference between not being able to find aged smoked Gouda cheese and not being able to buy cheese. But I guess such factual nuance eludes the CPC spin masters who are looking stupider and stupider by the day.

Seems to me this amounts to throwing stones about "factual nuance" eluding "spin masters" from a glass house... There's also a huge difference between experience in arranging for the shipment of product, and understanding the complex logistics of trucking.

"Temporary kerfuffles" may prove to be overly dismissive. Trucks moving beef and cheese are part of a much bigger web, all interconnected in ways you seem to have failed to consider in your rush to provide partisan commentary.

Whether or not this is a "temporary kerfuffle" remains to be seen.