Will the supply chain crisis steal my holiday season?

It's no secret that COVID-19 has disrupted the global supply chain (big ship, anyone?). But experts say that systemic labour and climate are also key to this convo.

Welcome to the 50th issue (WOO! 🥳) of The Supplement, a newsletter that fills in the gaps of your other news intake. This is Alex, one-third of The Supplement team! 

Each week, we pick a question submitted by you, our readers. If you’d like to submit a question for a future week, then email us at thesupplementnewsletter@gmail.com or reach out to us on Twitter or Instagram.

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This week, we’re tackling this question: Will the supply chain crisis steal my holiday season?

TL;DR: Some fear that the global supply chain crisis is going to steal the holiday season. A major cause has been COVID-19 shutting down or limiting capacity at factories, ports, and shipping and trucking networks. But in some important areas, like food, extreme weather events are also playing a role. Some say that to truly fix this crisis, we’ll need to also consider the systemic issues like the labour crisis at the heart of the challenge and climate change. 

Remember when that BIG boat blocked the Suez Canal in March? While that was the most visual example of our global supply chain being in shambles, the challenge is still showing no sign of ending — over a year and a half into the pandemic.  

And as we head towards the winter months, some are wondering: will the supply chain crisis steal the holiday season? Well, there’s been no shortage of advice to get your holiday shopping done even earlier this year — and to be prepared to pay more than previous years, as retailers are now dealing with higher shipping costs. 

So how did we get here again?

A major cause of this global crisis has obviously been COVID-19, with the pandemic hitting every step along the supply chain. Factories have been shut down, while ports and ocean shipping and trucking networks are facing congestion — due to outbreaks, insufficient space for storage and worker shortages. (In places like the UK, there are additional disruptions due to Brexit.) People staying at home has also led to a surge in online shopping, adding to the stress. 

Here’s a fun fact that adds more context: 90 per cent of global traded goods are transported via ocean shipping.

Now what?

In the US, President Joe Biden announced a number of steps to help ease the crisis:

• Some key ports in Southern California are moving to 24/7 operations. According to Business Insider, ports in this area are seeing a backlog of “nearly half a million shipping containers.”

• Working with states to issue more commercial driver licenses to help reduce shortage of truck drivers.

• Working with companies like FedEx and UPS to ramp up overnight operations.

Compared to our neighbour, Canada has seen less severe disruptions, but there are still plenty of areas for improvement. For instance, the Port of Vancouver — Canada’s biggest port — is facing fewer capacity and labour issues than ports on the US’s West Coast. Instead, Chamber of Shipping President Robert Lewis-Manning told The Globe and Mail that the main challenge is in the next few steps of the supply chain.

“The biggest problem in the Canadian supply chain is that there’s not enough land space,” Lewis-Manning said. “There’s too many containers to move out of terminals, to get to warehouses, and to unpack and move them on trucks.”

What else should you be thinking about?

As writer Amy Davidson Sorkin pointed out in the New Yorker, workers at the heart of the labour shortage are often dealing with systemic challenges like unsafe work conditions, low pay and a lack of access to childcare.  

At the same time, climate change is adding to the problem. For example, winter tires will soon be hard to get — not only because of the supply chain congestion, but also because of heavy rains and a leaf fungus disrupting the rubber harvest in Southeast Asia. Industries revolving around lumber, chocolate and certain types of rice are facing double the trouble. 

Most importantly, the cost of basic foods in Canada is rising due to both extreme weather events — such as the BC heatwaves damaging crops — and shipping challenges.

So fixing the supply chain crisis needs to go further in dealing with these issues.

“The real challenge, when it comes to thinking about supply chains, isn’t making sure that a container ship is unloaded,” she wrote. “It’s deciding how we want to live.”

Here’s someone to follow: I’m cheating a little bit by recommending an outlet instead of an individual, but check out The Local. They have done a lot of great longform stories on social issues in Toronto, and their latest issue on precarious labour is a great read!  

Here’s a story to check out: Iqaluit residents are facing a local state of emergency, as the Nunavut capital’s tap water is possibly contaminated. Read more in this article by Globe reporter Willow Fiddler about how the community is responding to the challenge.