It’s now been 2 weeks since the trucker protest demonstration in Ottawa happened. Many people still don’t know how much of a big effect this 3-week long protest had on not only Ottawa but Canada as a whole.
Darren Chapman is an economics professor at Fanshawe college here in London and he spoke about the economic strain that Ottawa faced during the trucker protests.
Listen or Read Darren’s comments below
“Well, the strain within the city itself, shut down arteries going into the city simply because the authorities wanted to prevent any more individuals from coming into the city.
So, it essentially put a block or a sort of a no enter zone around the major center in Ottawa. So a number of businesses couldn’t operate.
They chose not to operate because of individuals coming into their establishment and harassing them. So within the city itself, it had a tremendous economic impact for those businesses and the residents that lived in those areas”.
Next, Darren dove into how Canada as a whole was affected by these protests.
Listen or Read Darren’s comments below
“With respect to the overall economic costs to the country. Those truckers were extending their will, I guess, to other areas blocking the Ambassador bridge in Windsor, the Coots access in Southern Alberta and Emerson in Manitoba.
So that essentially limited the amount of goods and services that we’re able to come into Canada or leave Canada to the United States.
Which impacted significantly the auto industry and some of our other industries where those parts couldn’t enter Canada.
So, they essentially shut down plants and you know you shut down a plant.
It’s not only just the plant that gets shut down, but it’s all the support services that get affected by that and has tremendous costs, not only to the businesses, but the individuals that are working there and are expecting employment.
After I spoke to Darren, I reached out to Mike Bloxam, the fresh food coordinator at the London food bank to try and get a local perspective and see what Londoners had to deal with during these protests.
Listen or Read Mike’s comments below
“Well, thankfully we weren’t effected locally, we didn’t have any impact here either on service or donations so were grateful that weren’t impacted”.
Since the food bank was not affect by the trucker protests, I ask Mike if the food bank ever discussed what they would do if the truckers impacted their establishment.
Listen or Read Mike’s comments below
“Not to my knowledge as a staff we didn’t discuss it outside of the fact that we saw what happened to that one soup kitchen in Ottawa and were concerned for that because their serving a vulnerable population just like we are.
So, we’re thankful there haven’t been any protests in London that have got to that extent.”
Overall these trucker protests that were demonstrated in Ottawa, didn’t affect us locally in London.
However, these demonstrations still affected the economy of the entire country and frustrated the residents of Ottawa.
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