Alberta could face big problems getting goods in and out of province due to B.C. floods, landslides

Albertans could face significant problems getting goods in and out of the province in the weeks and months ahead after flooding and landslides in southern British Columbia cut off highways and disrupted rail lines.

Every major route between B.C.'s Lower Mainland and the B.C. Interior has been cut by washouts, flooding or landslides following record-breaking rainfall across southern B.C. between Saturday and Monday. The B.C. government declared a state of emergency midday Wednesday.

Kent Fellows, a professor of economics at the University of Calgary, told CBC News at Six on Tuesday that the knock-on effects for commercial shipping could be widespread.

Albertans could see disruptions to supplies of many products, from imported electronics out of Asia, to fresh fruit and vegetables from B.C. and down the West Coast of the United States, Fellows said. Thousands of commercial freight trucks sitting stranded in parts of B.C. between their ports of departure and their delivery points.

Likewise, brace for disruptions in shipping Alberta's oil and other goods to the West Coast, he said.

"Unlike the pressures that we faced coming out of COVID on the supply chain, which have been pretty significant, the difference here is not that things are going to show up more slowly … it's that they can't show up at all," he said.

"So once we've sort of drawn down our domestic stocks, once the store shelves are empty and the warehouses in Alberta go empty, you're looking at either trying to find alternative supply chains … or just things not getting here at all."

Since B.C.'s Lower Mainland gets most of its oil and gasoline from Alberta, that province could face an energy supply issue, he said.

"The magnitude of this is really serious, that we have disruptions in highway connectivity, disruptions in rail connectivity — which is a big deal for commercial trade — and now disruptions on the Trans Mountain pipeline," he said.

"If these closures stick around for a while, which it looks like some of them might, we could see some pretty significant pressures at the provincial or even national levels."

There are four highways that connect B.C.'s Lower Mainland with the rest of the province: 

They've all been closed by landslides and flooding brought on by an unusual atmospheric river event that dumped a month's worth of rain on some parts of the province's south over the course of two days.

B.C. Minister of Transportation and Infrastructure Rob Fleming said in a media briefing on Tuesday that Highway 7 could have a clear path by late Tuesday and Highway 3 might be able to reopen by the end of the weekend, but he wouldn't even hint at when the other three highways could be repaired. 

Rail lines have also been affected.