All of Canada will feel the pain from commodities crash: Mullen

by Truck News

CALGARY, Alta. — Mullen Group CEO Murray Mullen gave an interview to BNN this week, in which he warned the entire country will feel the pain from Alberta’s weakened economy and the commodities crash.

“It is going to have contagion throughout the country. There’s no way to avoid it,” Mullen said. “These are very difficult times to migrate through.”

Mullen said his specialized transportation company has already laid off more than 1,000 people.

He also said the low loonie has driven up equipment costs by 50% over the past year-and-a-half.

“We’re going to have a very difficult time retooling our business. If you don’t retool your business, how do you become more productive?” Mullen said.

Mullen also said trade patterns have shifted, with freight available southbound but few imports to transport back.

“There’s a real change that’s happening in trade patterns that I’m not sure is working out in our favour,” Mullen said.

Mullen said Canada needs “all hands on deck” to create jobs and weather this economic storm. You can watch the 10-minute interview here or in the window below.


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  • The biggest downfall of the Canadian economy was putting too many eggs in one basket. The Tarsands oil is a dinosaur in a fast paced ever changing economy… It does not fit in a green world and Harper’s government kept promoting it as if it would go on forever. Overpriced labour, labour intensive extraction, the dirtiest toxic oil in the world just doesn’t cut it in a carbon dense, polluted world. Leaving it in the ground would have been a better idea 40 years ago, in my opinion, but we didn’t… so now we all have to suffer from a low dollar, an antiquated energy policy and a slow turn around time to cleaner energy sources and employment adjustments and retraining of our labour forces. I hope we can all ride it out and solutions come down the pike quickly.