The Port of Nanaimo is busy due to a backlog of Canadian grain and a truckers strike that has frozen container traffic through Port Metro Vancouver.
And local service providers, suppliers and grocers are seeking some extra business as a result.
As the three-week truckers dispute threatens to hurt the Canadian economy, Nanaimo grocers and other small businesses are benefiting.
"Most of the ships we've got at anchor are grain ships," said Bernie Dumas, Nanaimo Port Authority CEO.
"They're waiting for cargo — for terminal appointments to fill up with grain."
The Canadian prairies yielded a record, bumper grain crop last year, which is still making its way through Vancouver en route to global markets.
Grain can only be loaded from train cars onto ships in dry weather, so every time it rains, it further delays shipments.
"Ships are backed up in Vancouver, and we're getting the overflow," Dumas said.
"Grain ships are a really interesting business for us. We're actually being used as a parking lot."
While waiting ships idle off Nanaimo, ship owners and crew do repairs and find ways to use their time, which generates economic "spinoffs" for the local economy.
Local spending ranges from repairs, through doctor visits to "getting groceries [and] buying things."
The truckers strike has caused shippers to divert some containers through U.S. ports such as Seattle and Tacoma. But a small number have been moved by barge to Nanaimo, where they can be loaded onto ships.
"The stevedores who do the ships, they don't care," Dumas said.
He estimates the increased activity at the Port of Nanaimo, at "probably 20 to 25 per cent, maybe more each week."
That means more income for the port, some of which pays for waterfront improvements. Any windfall will be short lived.
"The grain situation is probably going to last another two or three months," while the container dispute "could be solved tomorrow, or it could last another couple of weeks," Dumas said.
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