International Trade Committee on April 30th, 2024

[William Steele]

With Port Colborne being the gateway to navigation for the Welland Canal on Lake Erie, the open land that's been left from former industrial sites.... Right from the water of Lake Erie to our north-end border with Welland, we have vast tracts of land. Some of that's under the control of private enterprise and some is with the St. Lawrence Seaway authority. Now HOPA is coming in for a number of acres within the city.

We're looking to enhance that marine industry. I'm glad Jean Aubry-Morin spoke about the big project in Port Colborne. It's approximately $45 million to rehabilitate wharfs 18-1, 18-2 and 18-3, which have been out of service for approximately 10 to 15 years. Private enterprise has partnered with them on that project.

There's Ian's project on the old Algoma Steel plant and getting that back into service with multimodal, as Ian talked about.

Port Colborne is lucky. You know, Vance, as you served as mayor of Port Colborne for quite a long time. I served with you as a councillor. We own our own rail and we own our own port here alongside the St. Lawrence Seaway. We ran the former government elevator for grain that passes from the upper lakes down in through Niagara and then out to the seas to foreign markets.

There's so much land here that could be redeveloped along the canal, but it is infrastructure money, as has been talked about by many witnesses here today. It really needs to be coordinated between all of us—both the private and the public sector—so that we get these lands developed as fast as possible and get them out to market.

We're developing a brand new commercial-industrial subdivision that's right alongside the St. Lawrence Seaway canal. With us are private enterprise, with about 600 acres; the St. Lawrence Seaway, with approximately 100 acres there; and then the City of Port Colborne, with about 80 acres that we're developing.

We all need to work together. We need to get the companies that are coming to Canada. Quite frankly, I think you're going to see more and more. I think the Honda announcement last Thursday in Alliston was really the tip of the iceberg.

It really bodes well for the political climate of North America, both in Canada and the U.S. When you have the issues in Asia, in the Middle East and, quite frankly, some of the issues in Europe right now, you're looking at having companies move here.

Port Colborne is seeing a company called Jungbunzlauer, or JBL, as we call them. They are one of the largest citric acid plants in the world. They're moving a new xanthan gum plant to Port Colborne. It's going to double the size of their plant.

These are just things that are coming along, but we need to be ready. Quite frankly, we needed to be ready yesterday, not tomorrow.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

Thank you very much.

We'll go on to Mr. Savard-Tremblay for two and a half minutes.

[Simon-Pierre Savard-Tremblay, Bloc, Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot, QC]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Mr. Aubry‑Morin, let's pick up where we left off and go back to the St. Lawrence Seaway review that was done.

Some stakeholders have stated that a review of the pilotage and coasting trade systems could make the seaway more competitive. Do you share that opinion?

[Jean Aubry-Morin]

Thank you for the question.

When we talk about supply chains, we're talking about fluidity and movement. The speed of movement of all commodities and goods is part of the solution, and it can be achieved by using technological or human resources or by coordinating movement, or by combining all of these methods. As mentioned by my colleagues Mr. Weller and Mr. Reinas, whatever the method used, the solution is to ensure that commodities never get stuck somewhere and that they move continuously in real time. What makes the seaway successful is that we invest in technology to ensure that coordination.

[Simon-Pierre Savard-Tremblay, Bloc, Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot, QC]

At this point in time, what should be reviewed and what has already been done?

[Jean Aubry-Morin]

We are currently in the process of implementing what we would call third-generation vessel passage management and multimodal site and movement technology, so that we can communicate information in real time efficiently and quickly. This will allow for proactive decision-making to avoid the delays and stoppages we've referred to, and will include pilotage service providers on the St. Lawrence and the Great Lakes, as well as other stakeholders involved in port or logistics services.

[Simon-Pierre Savard-Tremblay, Bloc, Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot, QC]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

You have 17 seconds remaining.

[Simon-Pierre Savard-Tremblay, Bloc, Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot, QC]

Mr. Aubry‑Morin, we have only 17 seconds left. We'll continue in the next round.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

Thank you.

Mr. Cannings, you have two and a half minutes.

[Richard Cannings, NDP, South Okanagan—West Kootenay, BC]

Thank you.

I turn to Mr. Weller. I have only two and a half minutes. You talked about a reindustrialization strategy. I don't know if you can talk about that in two and a half minutes, but I would just like to know what caused our deindustrialization. What have we learned in recent years, especially during the pandemic, about our supply chains, so that we can reindustrialize and make those supply chains more resilient?

[Matt Weller]

Through you, Madam Chair, there's a lot in that question to unpack. I will try, as quickly as I can, to reiterate....

What caused the failures? There were several things. Beginning in the late nineties we had a lot going on. It got worse with.... I'd say we were at our peak in the late nineties. Basically, the financial crisis happened in 2008, which pushed us over a cliff. Canada's dollar went to par with the U.S. dollar, which hurt a lot of manufacturers, and between 2001 and 2010 Canada's medium-sized manufacturers shrank by 51%. At the same point in time, imports from China grew by 456%. So, competition on a global scale is what led to the demise. We never recovered, and from an employment perspective the data shows that we haven't recovered yet and we're not picking up.

[Richard Cannings, NDP, South Okanagan—West Kootenay, BC]

Basically, that globalization has caused that deindustrialization. What can we do to...?

[Matt Weller]

This is why I say, “reindustrialize.” When we talk about supply chain, we talk about trade, exporting, purchasing and manufacturing. These things on their own are no more a supply chain than a set of tires is a car. Isn't that right? They're components of the supply chain, but when we're talking about the supply chain we need to talk about the whole system. There has to be an overarching balance struck in terms of coordinating all those efforts and resources, which are necessary. Don't get me wrong: Everything we have going on in Canada is necessary, and I don't wish to take away from any of that, but we need to coordinate it at a level that looks to the future and to the scale that we're going to need it.

The world is breaking down on a globalized scale. Right now we depend on a lot of imports. We have retired and outsourced a lot of our capabilities. We need to get them back, not only for our own sake but also to now export to others for whom it's less advantageous for them to have the same skills. This can be coordinated.

When I say “reindustrialization”, it's an opportunity to set a strategy that will cover investments, infrastructure and everything else, to bring it all together in a coordinated way so that we're not satisfying ourselves in the present and hurting ourselves in the future.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

Thank you very much for that information.

I go to Mr. Jeneroux for five minutes.

[Matt Jeneroux, Conservative, Edmonton Riverbend, AB]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

I'm going to ask a quick question, and then after this, share my time with one of the hardest-working members of Parliament, Mr. Baldinelli from Niagara Falls.

First of all, though, Mr. Reinas, you talked about flagpoling, and you glossed over it at the beginning of your testimony. Maybe flesh out in a bit more detail certain things that the federal government can do, because I think that's certainly something that should be part of our report going forward.

[Ron Reinas]

My whole point is that you can invest tons of money in infrastructure, but if you don't have policies to support that or you have policies that actually hurt that investment, you really are defeating yourself.

What happens with flagpoling is that, during the pandemic when you couldn't go to the border, IRCC had an online system, and if you applied before your work permit or residency permit expired, you were given what was called “implied status”. Once the border reopened it went back to the old way: People apply, but they don't get their approvals for nine or 12 months. In between, their work permit is expiring, so to assure themselves that they can stay in Canada, they go to the border because there they have to be processed immediately.

The problem is that it ties up U.S. customs officers, which means that they're not out there working to clear trucks going into the U.S., so you understand how it all fits together. Then, when they get their paperwork refusal in the U.S., they come over to Canada, they have to go into secondary, tying up CBSA officers, who aren't out working primary, allowing imports or tourists to come into Canada.

To me, it's quite simple: Go back to what you did during the pandemic. Give people implied status and say, “Don't go to the border.” Do it the way it should be done in 2024. Do it online. More importantly, have a service standard that says that you're going to get your work permit within 21 or 30 days of applying for it, so there's no need to wait for nine months and fear losing your work permit. To me, it's low-hanging fruit that should be addressed.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

Mr. Baldinelli.

[Tony Baldinelli, Conservative, Niagara Falls, ON]

Thank you.

Thank you to my colleague for ceding some time.

Recently, the St. Lawrence Seaway announced that nearly 38 million tonnes of cargo transited the binational seaway in 2023. That's up 3.4%. That growth leads to jobs and job creation.

If you think about Niagara, we're within an eight-hour drive and we have the seaway and hundreds of millions of people within that area.

Mayor Steele, you talk of the need for collaboration. You referenced both HOPA and the St. Lawrence Seaway authority and how we can unleash the potential of Niagara. The national supply chain task force indicated that over a 50-year period, from 2020 to 2070, an investment of about $4.4 trillion is going to be needed. The majority of that, about $3.3 trillion, is going to be in the road structures.

There had been talk in Niagara for a long time of the need for a mid-peninsula corridor. It would tie nicely into the whole multimodal aspect of what's going on in terms of the investments and trade that happen in Niagara. I was wondering if you had any thoughts on that.

[William Steele]

Thanks for the question.

Yes, that goes back to quite a long time ago, and it keeps popping its head up from time to time. It's probably a project that still should be looked at, especially to move trucks between the Peace Bridge, where Mr. Reinas is, all the way up to the Hamilton airport, which is one of the largest cargo airports in Canada, and then across the 403-401 corridor. It would alleviate a lot of the QEW coming from the GTA down into Niagara over the Burlington Skyway, and at least it would get people moving faster.

It's more than just highways; it's actually our rail system. Our rail system, quite frankly, in Niagara isn't the greatest system. There are some inefficiencies. We ripped out lots of tracks over the years, and now we look back and wish we had those again, specifically the Buffalo to Detroit line that followed Highway 3 all the way from Buffalo-Fort Erie to Windsor-Detroit. Having that line today would alleviate a lot of things.

I think one thing I've said, and a lot of the other people have said today is the fact that we're not here to take away rail or trucking and make everything go through the St. Lawrence Seaway authority with shipping. We're trying to meld everybody together so that we can all work together, but instead of trucks travelling for hours and hours on end, we could actually ship more. A number of people, both Ian and Jean Aubry spoke about this, with regard to the cargo on the ships and how many trucks it takes off the road, how many railcars it takes off the rails. Short-line rail is something we can look at for southern Ontario, also short-line trucking with a lot of firms. In our neighbourhood, we have one short-line trucking firm that travels in southern Ontario for all the goods for the markets that he deals with.

Those things need to be looked at. That's how you look at the environmental aspect of this and getting rid of CO2. Also look at electrification of shipping. Hydrogen fuel for shipping is another thing. A possibility is looking at biofuel from grain for airlines. We need to look at how we can start processing those types of commodities here in southern Ontario within Niagara.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

We are way over. Thank you very much.

Next is Mr. Sheehan for five minutes, please.

[Terry Sheehan, Liberal, Sault Ste. Marie, ON]

Thank you very much, Chair, and I'll be sharing some time with Vance, a very hard-working former mayor in the Niagara region as well.

My first question is, of course, for FedDev.

I would be remiss if I didn't acknowledge your work in steel. I'm co-chair of the all-party steel caucus. Recently we had the ambassador to Japan in Sault Ste. Marie. He certainly pointed out something you alluded to, the EV supply chains, which we haven't talked a lot about.

Perhaps you could expand a little more on the opportunities for, say, the steel industry and other industries as it relates to the EV battery announcement that Honda recently made. A lot has been talked about mining, and a lot has been talked about car production, but there are the investments both in Hamilton and Sault Ste. Marie.

Sault Ste. Marie is a $420-million announcement, which is generational, in funding. We were saying that in 2021, and I was glad to hear it again and again and again. It's going to anchor Sault Ste. Marie for a long time. If you recall, FedDev did make an announcement with the previous federal Conservative government. I remember it was on July 24, 2015. I won't forget the date, because a week later, there was an election. However, after I won and even before I was sworn in, I was called to a meeting and heard that Algoma Steel was going into restructuring. That's the kind of due diligence that the previous government had done on that.

On this particular investment, it's going to take a million gas-powered cars off the road, or close to it. Where else do you see these supply chains? Expand on the Algoma Steel example. The ambassador was very impressed. He and a lot of people made the point that it's not just governments; it's the market and it's the people. If someone wants to drive an electric vehicle.... If there was somebody who was competing against that steel industry, he would point out, “Well, that's being made with coal.”

Perhaps you'd like to expand on that, and then after you're done, I'll pass my time to Vance.

[Steve Masson]

Thank you very much for the question.

As I noted in my opening remarks, the transition to electric vehicle production in southern Ontario has been quite rapid and transformational in creating a number of supply chain opportunities across the region. Certainly with large steel producers, both with Algoma and with what's happening at Dofasco down in Hamilton in terms of greening their operations, there is tremendous opportunity to connect green steel products into the production processes for automotive parts, supplying EV production going forward.

There is also a tremendous amount of opportunity to build that corridor to connect to some of the resource extraction around critical minerals in northern Ontario and get them down to market through the south. We're already seeing some talk of that around a north-to-Niagara type of corridor emerging.

What's truly unique about our region when it comes to the EV supply chain is that it is one of the only jurisdictions in North America where you have the overlap of a very dense technology cluster with a very dense manufacturing cluster. That opens up a whole new range of opportunities for suppliers, not just when it comes to traditional manufacturing, but also on the automotive technology side and being able to leverage new technologies, including artificial intelligence such as cybersecurity-based solutions, to drive the component parts of the future.

[Terry Sheehan, Liberal, Sault Ste. Marie, ON]

I believe that Vance has a question.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

You have one minute and 30 seconds.