Maple Ridge Pitt Meadows Chamber of Commerce expresses concern over blockades

Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows Chamber of Commerce has issued an open letter to address the ongoing blockades all over Canada, and is urging people and the government to resolve the issue with urgency, to ensure businesses can return to normalcy.

The letter signed by chamber President Eric Mollema, was also sent to the local MP and the MLAs. In the letter, the chamber expressed concern over the “illegal blockades” and noted that Canadian business had already suffered under the strain of constant disruptions over the past two years.

“The challenges they have had to overcome have included COVID-19, extreme weather events, increasing inflationary pressures, labour shortages and supply chain disruptions. Now achieving a successful recovery is threatened by the ongoing blockades of the critical infrastructure that enables the livelihoods and well-being of all Canadians,” wrote the President.

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He added that allowing these closures to continue would also have serious economic and reputational consequences for years ahead, and noted that the underlying issues related to the blockades need to be addressed by the government and rule of law that protects all rights and freedoms. Continuing to ignore the blockades may undermine Canada’s international reputation and cause divestment and cancellation of contracts that will have a negative knock-on effect on local businesses, wrote Mollema.

“Canadians expect our elected representatives at all levels of Government and from all political parties, to set aside partisanship and to bring this issue to a quick resolution,” he said.

“As our community’s elected representative, we are asking that you work with your parliamentary colleagues to deal with the blockages in a levelheaded and fair manner to resolve the issues and to allow business to return to normalcy.”

Earlier this week, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau invoked the national Emergencies Act to bring an end to these blockades in what even he described as illegal and not about peaceful protest.

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