Ambassador Bridge blockade is cutting auto production at Canadian plants

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Protests against COVID-19 mandates continue to snarl the streets of Canada’s capital and cripple cross-border crossings in Ontario and Alberta, blocking vital routes for goods.

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The demonstrations began when the self-described “Freedom Convey” descended on Ottawa on Jan. 28, to protest the federal government’s move to require that Canadian truck drivers crossing the U.S. border be fully vaccinated. It has since evolved into a protest against all public health measures aimed at fighting the COVID-19 pandemic. Organizers say they will not end their protest until all measures are dropped.

Below are live updates on what’s happening across Canada today.

9:05 a.m.

‘We’re kind of used to getting punched in the face’

That’s how Rod Wildeboer, chief executive of Martinrea International Inc., one of Canada’s bigger makers of automobile parts, summed up how he’s feeling in a story by the Washington Post.

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Bank of Canada Governor Tiff Macklem said on Feb. 9 that the economic impact of the border blockades will be “measurable” if the protests last much longer. That’s because car and truck parts worth hundreds of millions of dollars move back and forth between Southern Ontario and Michigan each day via the Ambassador Bridge. If those parts stop moving, companies such as Martinrea only have so much space to stockpile production. When the space runs out, the next step is to cancel shifts.

“We make big stuff,” Wildeboer said in the Post. “We can’t keep production going and have stuff piled up in our yards. The yard would be full in a day and a half.”

The blockades have started disrupting production.

Both Ford Motor Co and Toyota Motor Corp said on Wednesday they had been forced to halt some operations because of supply chain disruptions stemming from protests that have snarled traffic at the Ambassador Bridge connecting Detroit and Windsor. Chrysler-maker Stellantis has also been disrupted.

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Toyota, the top U.S. seller, said it was not expecting to produce vehicles at its Ontario sites for the rest of the week.

Ford’s engine plant in Windsor is shut down and the schedule cut back at its Oakville assembly plant outside Toronto that makes the Edge model, spokesperson Said Deep said Wednesday an email. The automaker is continuing to ship engine inventory to U.S. plants, he added.

General Motors Co said today it was forced to cancel two production shifts at a plant in Michigan where it builds sport utility vehicles as a result of the Canadian trucking protests.

Aurora, Ont.-based Magna International, Canada’s biggest parts maker, said it had shifted some of its shipments to alternative border crossings, the Post said.

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The pandemic has wreaked havoc on the automobile industry for the better part of two years. If drivers didn’t realize they were essentially driving computers before, they do now, as an acute shortage of computer chips crippled production.

Some of that is reflected in Martinrea’s stock price, which is down about 30 per cent over the past year, the Post reported.

Wildeboer might be used to the sensation of being punched in the face, but it still must hurt.

– Kevin Carmichael

7:40 a.m.

Checking in with Canada border services:

The Ambassador Bridge in Windsor is still listed as “temporarily closed” as of 7:14 a.m. this morning, with waiting times at the nearby Blue Water Bridge in Port Huron, to which some traffic is diverting, listed as three hours.

The protestors, who are in support of the Truckers Freedom Convoy in Ottawa, have blocked traffic in the Canada-bound lanes of the bridge since Monday evening. Approximately US$323 million worth of goods cross the Windsor-Detroit border each day at the Ambassador Bridge, making it North America’s busiest international border crossing.

The delay at the Canada, U.S. border crossing at Coutts, Alberta, where another protest is stopping traffic, is listed as seven hours.

Additional reporting by Canadian Press, Reuters and Bloomberg