The United States and Canada showed commitment to ensuring seamless movement of goods along their borders with the staging of an exercise on supply chain disruption.
Held in early June and hosted by the Department of Homeland Security’s Supply Chain and Resilience Center, the Department of Transportation and Transport Canada, the joint drill featured a simulated severe winter weather event that allowed over 150 in-person and virtual participants to gain experience handling such scenarios.
The host organizations also provided participants with opportunities to discuss collaboration opportunities and DHS’s role in creating a resilient supply chain infrastructure.
Apart from simulated exercises, the activity also featured a talk by Sunny Wescott, chief meteorologist at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency Infrastructure Security Division. In her discussion, she highlighted the impact of ice, precipitation and wind on logistics operations and the importance of the exercise in identifying shortcomings that need immediate attention.
The supply chain disruption exercise comes as both North American nations experience an increasing number of natural calamities and other factors impacting supply chains. According to Ottawa’s trade records, about $2.6 billion worth of goods crossed U.S.-Canada borders on a daily basis in 2023.