Yahoo Finance Canada Senior Reporter Alicja Siekierska joins the Live show to discuss Canada's trucker protest in response to COVID-19 vaccine mandates and its potential to cause trade problems between the U.S. and Canada as a border crossing becomes impeded.

Video Transcript

BRIAN CHEUNG: Well, let's switch gears. You may have heard about that Canadian truck protest in response to the country's vaccine mandates. Well, the movement is now spilling over the border with traffic building on the Detroit-Windsor crossing that links Michigan to Ontario. So let's bring in Alicia Siekierska, Yahoo Finance Canada's senior reporter, for more on this. Alicia, obviously, this movement continuing to gain steam. Does this have the potential to really disrupt relations between the US and Canada, given the importance of that border crossing?

ALICIA SIEKIERSKA: Well, I mean, the situation at the Ambassador Bridge is evolving, but you're right, it has the potential to cause significant problems at what is the busiest border crossing in North America. Now this began, as you mentioned, as a protest in Ottawa, Canada's capital. And it has now spread over to the Ambassador Bridge, which links Windsor, Ontario to Detroit. It's now the third day in a row that we are seeing anti-vaccine mandate protesters block off access, at least partially, to this bridge.

And now this does have the potential to be a huge problem because this is the bridge where we see around $300 million worth of trade crossing over on a daily basis. It's the busiest border crossing in North America. And it's a particularly important crossing for the North American auto industry, which is so closely linked, particularly between Detroit and Windsor, both hubs for the auto industry. Auto trade accounts for about $100 million of that daily trade that crosses the border.

Car parts cross the border between Canada and the US up to eight times before a vehicle is actually assembled in North America. And so because manufacturers also work in a just in time production model, it means they don't have a huge supply of parts on hand in case there are shipment delays. And so I spoke to the head of a group representing Canadian auto parts manufacturers, and he said that this has the potential to create an impact within 24 to 48 hours. So lots of potential, and we're seeing lots of business leaders calling for an end to this blockade.

BRIAN CHEUNG: All right, Alicia Siekierska, senior reporter over at Yahoo Finance Canada, thanks so much for breaking that down for us. We'll be getting a little bit of an update on the mask mandates in some major jurisdictions that had been very strictly imposing those mask mandates. New York State Governor Kathy Hochul now announcing that they will be dropping their strict indoor mask mandate. That is as the surge in COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations is declining. Officials in Connecticut, Delaware, and Oregon also said they would withdraw some mask measures. Also keeping a focus on New Jersey and California with regards to their mask mandates as well.