International Trade Committee on May 7th, 2024

[Matt Jeneroux, Conservative, Edmonton Riverbend, AB]

In the last 30 seconds I have, another labour disruption of any kind would also be of a significant impact to your small and medium-sized enterprises. I assume the answer would be yes for that as well.

[Naina Sloan]

Yes. Any kind of disruption like that can have impacts for small businesses.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

Thank you very much.

Mr. Miao, go ahead for six minutes, please.

[Wilson Miao, Liberal, Richmond Centre, BC]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you to all the witnesses for being here today, including those online, to share the west coast perspective on this study.

I direct my first question to Ms. Sloan of PacifiCan. Can you tell the committee what programs or investment PacifiCan has made to improve our supply chain resilience over these years?

[Naina Sloan]

Maybe I'll talk about a particular program first and then come back to an example.

The business scale-up and productivity program supports high-growth businesses that have the opportunity to grow, that are growing and are producing innovative goods and services or technologies. The program has been operating for a number of years and has supported many companies, almost 100 companies, and provided almost $200 million worth of funding to companies. BSP focuses on companies with a desire to scale up through export growth, productivity and other types of expansion. The program has achieved significant results in terms of new export sales. The program is sector-agnostic, so it supports companies across a range of sectors, but there have been some examples of how we have been able to support companies doing work that is related or adjacent to supply chain and supply chain resilience.

The example I noted in my opening remarks, the integrated marketplace initiative, is one of those examples, and we have a number of partners that are airports, ports, etc. The idea with that initiative is to support smaller companies, SMEs, that have innovative products or services that can be tested at airports or ports with supply chain partners, and that testing can then lead to greater efficiency of those organizations as well as opportunities for SMEs. That's one way we support those things.

[Wilson Miao, Liberal, Richmond Centre, BC]

Thank you for sharing that with us.

What kinds of programs or investments has PacifiCan made to assist B.C. companies in diversifying their markets internationally, or the economy more broadly?

[Naina Sloan]

Maybe I'll give another example of a project.

There are many, but one I will highlight is support that PacifiCan provided to AbCellera through this BSP program. AbCellera is in the life sciences and pharmaceuticals business, and it achieved significant export growth—roughly $1.4 billion of export sales growth—and attracted significant foreign direct investment through the company. PacifiCan supported AbCellera in scaling up its therapeutic antibody discovery partnerships, and did that through marketing, business development support, intellectual property licensing and support for expansion globally. More specifically, the project that we supported helped the company to improve its U.S. and European presence, increasing its visibility and its partnerships with pharmaceutical companies. In the U.S., for example, AbCellera developed the first U.S. FDA-approved antibody treatment for the virus that caused COVID.

That's just an example of one company, again, that is benefiting from support under the BSP program from PacifiCan and diversifying its partnerships, services and products, and having success overseas.

[Wilson Miao, Liberal, Richmond Centre, BC]

Thank you for that.

The next question I direct to YVR. With this opportunity, I also want to congratulate YVR for being named the best airport in North America through the SKYTRAX world airport awards. This is the only airport that has, 14 times, been named the best airport in North America.

Jason, it's always good to see you here. Early this year, we announced the national trade corridors funding for cargo expansion. In your remarks you mentioned the work that's being started right now. Can you please share with the committee how a program like this will strengthen our current supply chain?

[Jason Tse]

As an airport, in terms of our main competitors, as I mentioned earlier, it is those traditional U.S. west coast airports, most notably Seattle, Portland and, to a lesser extent, San Francisco and LAX. Most of these airports reside basically right on the oceanfront or near the shoreline.

From the land development opportunity perspective, it's quite constrained, so we have a pretty unique opportunity in terms of developing some additional cargo infrastructure—both an apron and an airside warehouse over the next several years—to really proactively go after the key trade lane. That's Asia to North America and the Americas in general. We can proactively build our markets here to the economic benefit of our local community and the rest of Canada as well.

[Wilson Miao, Liberal, Richmond Centre, BC]

Thank you, Jason.

With the last 20 seconds here, can you share with the committee more about what YVR is doing to develop land, especially with the scarcity of industrial land right now in metro Vancouver? How is this going to benefit Canada's supply chain?

[Jason Tse]

Yes. That is a challenge for the Lower Mainland in terms of industrial land availability. However, at the airport, we have some ability to unlock some additional lands, both south of the terminal and north of the terminal, and we are working on both of those projects today. Again, work has already started at the airport south side and then, shortly thereafter, development will begin north of the airport as well.

[Wilson Miao, Liberal, Richmond Centre, BC]

Great. Thank you. My time is up.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

Mr. Savard-Tremblay, you have six minutes, please.

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

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you to all the witnesses for being with us.

My question is for the Port Alberni Port Authority representative.

Mr. Knezevic, during the strike in the Port of Vancouver, some players in the economic sector asked the government for special legislation to force people back to work. That request wasn’t granted this time, unlike what happened in the Port of Montreal a few years ago, for example. This parliament voted on it. We know that Canada has a sad track record when it comes to forcing workers back to work through special legislation.

How can we make sure that we protect both our supply chains and workers’ rights?

[Zoran Knezevic]

The best way, in my opinion—as Mr. Sobkowich mentioned—is that certain goods have to be made essential. Our gateway has to maintain its fluidity and be open, so some areas have to be designated as essential. On the other hand, as well, labour should be allowed to strike and also to exercise their rights.

It's always about the balance, about finding the balance in the industry, but on the gateway, in my opinion it is very important to keep our fluidity of the gateway and find a solution where a port needs to be kept open.

I hope I was able to answer the question.

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

As part of another study, at the end of 2023, we heard from a representative of the Port of Montreal longshoremen’s union. He said that one of the reasons the strikes happened, specifically in Vancouver and Montreal, was because the real decision makers weren’t at the negotiating table. He alluded to the fact that representatives for shipping companies and shipping operators weren’t in attendance.

Do you agree with this observation?

[Zoran Knezevic]

To a degree, both Montreal and the west coast as well are represented by the Maritime Employers Association. Membership is voluntary; it's not mandatory. Some shippers are part of it, but most of the time they are not. It is a cost to the operator.

I think all the players should be at the table, so yes, I would agree that we should support having shippers at the table as well.

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

Thank you.

I’d now like to hear you talk a bit about the significant challenges that will impact port facilities in the next 5 to 10 years.

Do you think Canada is ready to meet those challenges?

[Zoran Knezevic]

I agree with what Mr. Sobkowich said about the national supply chain office having identified that we are short a couple of trillion dollars in port infrastructure investment for the future. We are very much behind in having adequate port and transportation infrastructure to move forward. We are falling behind day by day, and we have to look at innovative models. That's exactly what I was proposing: think outside the box, use our marine highway and really focus on investing in port and transportation infrastructure. We still have just one railway going up and down the Fraser Canyon, and if anything happens to that railway, we are in trouble.

We have to have a more serious....maybe that's not the right word. We have to be really focused and identify a way to provide continued funding to enable our port infrastructure and transportation infrastructure, but ports in particular, to move goods on and off our shores. That's the only way we'll be able to grow. I believe that, with our railway saturated as it is right now coming from the west coast, we have an opportunity. The national supply chain office is a good start, but I also believe it needs to have the means to move things forward.

It all comes down to funding. We have to put some serious money behind it and really evolve—and I'm talking especially about the west coast—into the Asia Pacific gateway 2.0, where we include the whole of the west coast as an enabler in moving Canadian goods as we trade with Asia.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

Thank you very much.

I have Ms. Zarrillo for the remaining few minutes.

[Bonita Zarrillo, NDP, Port Moody—Coquitlam, BC]

Thank you so much, Madam Chair.

It has been a very interesting day today, and we unfortunately only have six minutes left. I'm sorry about that, because we could have had each of you for a full hour.

With the fact that I only have six minutes in mind, I just wanted to share with you that all of your quotes and the things you say influence recommendations this committee makes and can influence what the government does.

My first question is to Mr. Stamper, and then hopefully I can speak to Mr. Tse at the Vancouver Airport Authority.

Mr. Stamper, you mentioned there is product going out of the country that we need, and we're bringing in the same product from other places. How does the Australian model work? How do they know their available domestic capacity?

[Pete Stamper]

That's an excellent question.

Australia and Japan nearly lost their entire battery recycling industries because, essentially, brokers were buying the batteries and selling them to these lower jurisdictions. The way it is implemented, because batteries are hazardous waste, you must have an export permit to export them. In Australia and Japan, that triggers a public process for comment. Of course, they invite all the recyclers that are left to comment on it, and they say, “I object to that permit because I have capacity to recycle that here.”

[Bonita Zarrillo, NDP, Port Moody—Coquitlam, BC]

What's the timing on that? Is it a long process or a short process?

[Pete Stamper]

I don't know the answer to that. I know that, in the Canadian process, when we apply for an export permit, it takes maybe two to three months from the time we file to when it's granted.

[Bonita Zarrillo, NDP, Port Moody—Coquitlam, BC]

Does that seem a reasonable time frame?