Planned Shortages

It's not an accident and the ignorant are going to get this good and hard:

COVID outbreaks have idled port terminals. There still aren’t enough cargo containers, causing prices to spike 10-fold from a year ago. Labour shortages have stalled trucking and pushed U.S. job openings to all-time highs. And that was before UPS, Walmart and others embark on hiring hundreds of thousands of seasonal workers to take on the peak of peak.

 

(Sidebar: well, people can always shop local or focus on the reason for the season. Thanks for re-Christianising the West, China.) 

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The federal government has invoked a dispute resolution process in a 1977 pipeline treaty with the United States in an effort to keep the economically vital Line 5 pipeline in operation.

The Enbridge Inc. pipeline, which runs through Michigan from the Wisconsin city of Superior to Sarnia, Ont., crosses the Great Lakes beneath the environmentally sensitive Straits of Mackinac, which links Lake Michigan to Lake Huron.

The pipeline provides nearly half of the fuel supply in Canada's two largest provinces, Ontario and Quebec. It carries up to 540,000 barrels of Canadian crude oil and other petroleum products per day — providing everything from jet fuel for Toronto Pearson Airport to gas for home heating.

The dispute erupted last year when Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer — citing the risk of a catastrophe in the Straits of Mackinac — abruptly revoked the easement that had allowed the line to operate since 1953. Enbridge and the government of Michigan had been engaged in court-ordered mediation to resolve the dispute.

Gordon Giffin, a former U.S. ambassador to Canada currently acting as legal counsel to the Canadian government, recently informed the U.S. court that Canada had formally requested negotiations with Washington under the 1977 Canada-U.S. treaty on pipelines.

Foreign Affairs Minister Marc Garneau said the government made the move to ensure Line 5 remains in operation.

"In response to Michigan's efforts to shut down Line 5, Canada has raised its significance for Canadian economic and energy security at the highest levels of the U.S. federal government," he said in a media statement.

Good luck with that, Canada.