I'm surprised there's no shortages yet because trucks can't get to the city. Or does Vancouver import most non-regional goods from the US (and not the rest of Canada) anyway?
The storm that hit which caused the flooding which closed the roads also hit the Vancouver-adjacent parts of the US, so some of those are closed as well.
Lots of produce does come from the Fraser Valley which is impacted, but also North/South links to the USA (ie. we get heaps of produce from California).
I assume there's a fair amount of food that is delivered from the port, as a lot of food packaging warehouses are near the port.
Most trade in Canada is North/South aligned. Tbh the east/west orientation of the country doesn't make a lotta sense lol.
Are the prices in line with what those products would cost in the US (e.g. WA state)? I was under the impression that the prices in BC were lower, so now I'm wondering if the price adjustment to account for local markets is significant or not, or if I misremembered completely.
I don't look too closely at my grocery bill, so I'm probably not the most helpful person to ask.
I assume all the food is cheaper in the USA than Canada.
Much of its out-of-season produce comes from California, but that's the case in WA, as well.
Things like cheese are very expensive in BC, but that's due to Canada's dairy tax situation.
As Paul Krugman wrote, Canada is closer to the US than to itself. (<https://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/01/13/eh/>)
Three gas stations are out of gas (this was before noon) people are driving down with jerry cans to fill up extra fuel, stores are all bare because people ran to the stores to stock up on food, there was a line to get in the grocery stores. While inside some people were pushing two carts full of groceries to the checkout.
The roads going West are flooded out and the roads to the East are flooded out. There is definitely shortages here because Vancouver has the regional warehouses. There is no resupplies that can come into Chilliwack, and there hasn’t been an announcement on when the roads will clear.
Some areas are told to shelter in place and others are told to evacuate.
https://bcmilk.com/notice-to-producers-flood-conditions-and-...
Vancouver's surrounding agricultural areas, lush as they are, will now be almost out of commission for an indefinite length of time.
The other option is turn it into cheese
Canada Post is going to be a real mess though. They either fly or truck overland domestically.
I don’t think they do any rail.