It is estimated that one in four small businesses are getting hit hard by the recent blockades on rail lines across the country.

That's from Canadian Federation of Independent Business Prairie Region Director Jonathan Alward.

He says the other half of the small business world is expected to feel that impact soon, as well. He notes the survey began late last week and 6,000 small businesses responded, with many from Manitoba.

"The current blockades have a very significant impact already on a lot of different businesses across the country, certainly here in Manitoba," says Alward. "Actually, even moreso, in some cases, here in Manitoba. We're very concerned that this is a bad problem and it could get worse before it's over."

He notes the ones that have been most impacted include farmers, who, in some cases, have not yet got all their crops out to market after a late harvest. Alward explains significant backlogs are piling up while farmers are trying to get their product to market and get paid.

"Looking down the line for spring, to be able to get the inputs in, to be able to start in spring, a lot are getting fertilizer, for example, by rail," adds Alward. "So, that's very, very concerning for farmers after what's really been an incredibly challenging 2019. This is just another in a string of significant blows for farmers, especially in the prairies."

Alward says the wholesale end of the market shows many shortages in inventory causing many customers to become quite disgruntled after having already purchased products and waiting for them to come. Retailers are getting empty shelves, and he notes they heard cases in wholesale and other industries where staff have already been laid off. Alward says they're losing tens of thousands of dollars of work, and are even worried about contracts for customers outside of Canada that could cause their reliability and credibility to be damaged.

He adds the blockades need to stop and see business get back to normal. Alward notes CN disruptions last fall saw one day in a rail delay that caused several additional days of slowdowns down the chain of supply. He notes it's all integrated. Alward says that every day adds multiple days of more slowdown in the supply chain.

As an example, he explans that a manufacturing company in Quebec was working on a $100,000 project and, as a small business, has not been able to get the raw materials to complete the job. Alward says their U.S. customer is waiting, and their reputation is on the line for future work, noting it's no fault of their own. He says this affects investor interest and Canadian business in general.