Article content continued

While freight trains are slowly starting to move again, business leaders say they are reluctant to move full speed ahead because of that uncertainty.

“The level of business uncertainty goes up with businesses not being able to know what to expect over the future,” said Beatty.

Dennis Darby, president and CEO of Canadian Manufacturers & Exporters, said a recent survey of his members found that 92 per cent believed the blockades had damaged Canada’s international reputation.

“Canada has to be predictable and right now up until the last little while we have not looked that predictable,” he said. “When you are an export focused country like Canada, where 80 per cent of it goes to the U.S., you have to have predictable infrastructure.”

Darby said half of his members said in an internal survey they had been hit with extra costs, because of the blockades, and 42 per cent slowed production because they couldn’t get products to market.

He said for manufacturers these blockades came just as supply routes from China were struggling due to the coronavirus.

Canada has to be predictable and right now up until the last little while we have not looked that predictable

After lengthy meetings this past weekend, the federal and British Columbia governments announced they had come to an agreement with Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs. The chiefs oppose the Coastal GasLink pipeline in Northern British Columbia and protests in support of them lead to railway blockades that crippled freight traffic across the country. The pipeline is supported by elected Wet’suwet’en band councils.