Last week, the vaccine mandate for truckers went into effect — a policy that industry experts warned could have serious negative repercussions to our supply chain.
We know inflation is rising worse than it’s done in 30 years. The year-over-year increase in grocery prices averages out to about 5%, although some items are much higher than others.
Anything the Liberal government does to worsen these problems is scandalous and that’s exactly what the trucker mandate does.
Do we support everyone getting vaccinated? Sure. But at this point, when most people are vaccinated and the mild omicron variant is circulating widely, these sorts of punitive mandates accomplish little.
Yet the Liberals are stubbornly moving full steam ahead.
“The biggest threat to our supply chain is COVID,” Transport Minister Omar Alghabra posted to social media. “Keeping our stores stocked and our warehouses full requires truckers on the road not at home sick or in the hospital. That is why we created the vaccine mandate for truckers.”
Sorry, but this doesn’t pass the smell test. Canada has yet to face significant supply chain issues due to too many truckers being hospitalized or sick at home.
Industry experts have said that onerous isolation rules were keeping too many truckers off the road and too many grocery store employees at home.
Canadians have seen empty store shelves more than usual in recent days. A variety of factors are at play, including weather, but the challenges at the border are undeniably one of them.
People who took to social media to post pictures of empty store shelves across the country were attacked by Liberal partisans hostile to the idea that government policy could have at all played a role.
“This is the third empty grocery store I’ve been to this week that’s been empty, Where are the pumpkins??” joked Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s press secretary, Alex Wellstead — who posted a picture of a well-stocked store.
If your local grocery store has everything in stock, consider yourself privileged. But it’s no laughing matter.
Supply chain woes are a serious matter, and some stores and communities are affected worse than ever.
The economy is complicated — perhaps that’s why the Liberals shouldn’t try to micromanage it.
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