Calls coming from Alberta for resolution to B.C. port workers' strike

With B.C. port workers poised to renew their strike on Saturday morning, Alberta's premier is renewing her call for the federal government to legislate the union back to work.

"The federal government must reconvene Parliament and legislate these workers back to work. Albertans and Canadians cannot afford to have hundreds of millions of dollars daily in products delayed at these ports," Danielle Smith said in a tweet Tuesday night.

"And the longer this strike continues, the more Canada's credibility as a reliable trading partner is damaged."

Smith's official spokesperson says it remains her position on the issue.

Alberta beef producers agree.

While the majority of exports from the province go south to the United States, Canadian beef producers are working hard to re-establish a market in Asia, particularly Japan, which re-opened its borders to Canadian beef in March, 20 years after closing them due to an outbreak of BSE.

"It's essential that other countries can depend on the fact that our ports are available and functioning properly to get product to market," said Brad Dubeau, general manager of Alberta Beef Producers.

"It's very important that we have that port functioning. We have already a backlog that gets worse as the days go by. We have producers out there, ranchers and farmers that depend on equipment and parts from around the world to make sure their equipment is functioning well here at home."

Clothiers are also being hit hard.

Local Laundry produces all its clothes in Canada but the cotton needed to make the clothes comes through the port.

In an effort to maintain supply, Local Laundry's manufacturers have been flying bales of cotton into Canada to avoid the port strike, a process that's driving up costs.

"We have our busiest season coming up. We're just coming into the back-to-school season, followed by the holiday season. So we are bulking up. And if our manufacturers don't have the resources they need, it'll end up costing us," said Connor Curran, co-founder of Local Laundry.

"It'll end up costing our customers more at a time where nobody needs any more extra additional costs."

Calgary Chamber of Commerce president Deborah Yedlin is frustrated by the on-again-off-again and now possibly on-again port strike.

"We can't have trade disruptions (at the) largest port in Canada, you know, (the) most diversified port in terms of cargo in North America. This doesn't just affect Canada, it affects North America," Yedlin said.

"It reflects badly on us because we're not seen as a reliable trading partner. So there's so many pieces that go into this. It really needs to be resolved as soon as possible."

The B.C. Maritime Employers Association said Wednesday morning that renewed picketing would begin Saturday at 9 a.m.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau changed his itinerary for this week on Wednesday and it now indicates he will be meeting with the incident response group to discuss the situation.