Scott and Twyla Pitman had a straightforward journey from Australia to North Vancouver — but getting their belongings past the port landed the couple in a bureaucratic labyrinth.
Scott and Twyla and their two young children moved to their new home in Lower Lonsdale earlier this summer, expecting the bulk of their possessions to arrive in late September. But a shipping container which held the beds for their children, winter clothes, medical records, and work materials was stopped at the port when an inspector found a few of the pallets didn’t have the proper stamp.
“It’s simply a bureaucratic blanket that is falling down,” Scott said.
The questionable pallet wasn’t used to carry their goods but another shipment in the 40-foot container.
“There is not a stamp in the right spot associated with a pallet. Not even the goods that are on the pallet,” he said.
The stamp, ISPM 15, is used on wood that’s been heat-treated and fumigated to prevent the spread of insects and diseases.
There is no plan to re-inspect the shipment despite a dispute over whether or not the pallet complies with regulations, according to Scott, who’s been in frequent contact with the Canadian Border Services Agency.
If no one manages to “shake some sense” into this situation, the Pitmans’ possessions will be bound for the last port of disembarkation in Singapore later this month.
The family’s property is tentatively slated to be returned around Christmas. In the meantime, they’ll likely need to duplicate several purchases. “We’ve now spent the money to ship it all over here, and we now have to go out and buy all this stuff,” Twyla said.
Scott said the family has already spent “many thousands of dollars” shipping their possessions.
“It’s physically sitting in the port here right now,” he said.
The situation could likely have been resolved without the Pitmans’ property ending up on a slow boat back to Asia, said Dane Croft, operations director for World Cargo Shipping in Vancouver. “I feel that this could have been avoided had the container just been fumigated upon arrival,” Croft said. “It would probably be a better solution than just sending the container back across the ocean.”
For families thinking of a move across an ocean, Croft recommends doing online research to find out import requirements.
The Pitmans have reached out to North Vancouver MP Andrew Saxton, the CBSA and their own shipping company, but have so far found no signs of a quick solution.
For Scott, the situation is tantamount to re-routing a plane to its country of origin because one passenger was wearing the wrong kind of shoes. “The shipping contracts are worded in the most unaccountable way you can imagine,” he said.
The cost of sending the container to Singapore and back could be between $15,000 and $20,000. If the CBSA is proven at fault, the Canadian government could end up shouldering the cost. Otherwise, the bill would be split among the 10 parties with cargo in the container.
