OTTAWA — Transport Canada estimates as much as $3.9 billion in trade activity was halted because of border blockades across the country related to protests against COVID-19 restrictions last winter.
The Public Order Emergency Commission reviewed emails between staff for various federal ministers who were hearing from businesses frustrated with border blockades between Feb. 8 and 9.
The commission is holding public hearings to investigate the events that led to the federal government's decision to invoke the Emergencies Act for the first time since it replaced the War Measures Act in 1988.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau referred to the economic impact of the blockades and the undermining of Canada's economic and national security in the emergency declaration Feb. 14.
The emails show that in the lead-up to the decision, motor companies expressed concerns to Transport Minister Omar Alghabra's office about having to shut down their manufacturing plants.
When Ontario Premier Doug Ford shut down production at an Oakville plant during the Windsor border blockade, Alghabra's chief of staff noted the situation was being seen by U.S. parent companies as "just another reason not to invest in Canada."
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 16, 2022.
Comments
I'm not going to say it's never legit to stage a protest that costs the economy money. But it should be about something real, not about self-indulgent nonsense.
Why are we spending so much time and effort, after the fact, to conduct a politically motivated "investigation" into whether or not our PM's invocation of the Emergency Measures Act (EMA) was necessary to put down the damaging effects of the Freedom Convoy? We all must remember the chaos that resulted in Ottawa and several border-crossing points, caused by people who had clearly demonstrated no respect for the law or for the rights of ordinary citizens. Moreover, the actions of the protesters were having a devastating effect on individual businesses and on the economy in general.
The PM had a tool that we, the people, had given him to bring about a halt to the illegal convoy activities. Its execution was very narrow in scope and in place only as long as it was needed. It worked. Why should we have to listen to various officials and their toadies claim that they could have solved the problem without the invocation of the EMA? (If so, why hadn't they done so? Why should we have to listen to arguments by politicians that they would have done things differently, (without saying exactly what they would have done)?
A post mortem into what caused the convoy to happen in the first place and grow out of control would have been useful, to try to preclude its recurrence; however that is not what is taking place! What useful result will be coming out of the current political exercise? Surely all the high-ranking people currently involved in this glorified witch-hunt have better things to do with their time (and our money)!