International Trade Committee on Nov. 30th, 2023

[Matt Jeneroux, Conservative, Edmonton Riverbend, AB]

You'd agree that there are lingering impacts.

[Robert Dick]

Sure. There are reputational impacts.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

Thank you very much.

We'll move on to Mr. Miao for four minutes, please.

[Wilson Miao, Liberal, Richmond Centre, BC]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you to the witnesses for being here today.

In your remarks, you mentioned that, on the import side, Canadian manufacturers could not get the materials needed to continue their production, which caused a cascading effect on cross-border industries like the auto sector.

To what degree did this strike have an impact on both the transportation sector and the auto industry in Canada?

[Christian Dea]

Thanks for the question.

You have to understand that the western ports serve, yes, B.C. and the Canadian economy but also the U.S. economy.

When you look just on the container side, the movement is about 40% for B.C. About 30% of everything that is moved through containers at the port is for the rest of Canada and another 30% goes to the U.S. It's mainly to the Midwest, where the manufacturing sector and the auto sector are. That's an important piece of context. This strike is not just affecting a region; it's affecting the economy and the North American market in that regard.

In terms of the areas that have been affected, the auto sector has clearly been an affected area. We were monitoring the situation with Canadian and also with U.S. companies to get a sense. Usually they have a bit of an inventory, which allows them to basically continue their full production. They start to really feel the impacts, I would say, after five to seven days. Within a week of disruption, they can manage without too many impacts in terms of the production side.

However, given the length of this one, clearly there has been some realignment of the production in the Canadian and U.S. auto sector.

[Wilson Miao, Liberal, Richmond Centre, BC]

Would you say that the backlog created was fully addressed right after the strike ended?

[Christian Dea]

For the backlog, when we're working with the industry, the rule they use is that it usually takes between three to five times the number of days lost in the strike. It differs for the different sectors.

When you look at that rule of thumb, it may take up to a month or two, depending on the sector and the region, to fully recover from the 13-day strike.

[Wilson Miao, Liberal, Richmond Centre, BC]

Would you say businesses were deferred to other ports because of what the port of Vancouver was experiencing? Did businesses go to the ports in Seattle or Portland down south?

[Robert Dick]

If I may, there are a couple of elements to that.

One is, as my colleagues have previously noted, that these supply chains are not necessarily very agile. It does take lead time to adjust.

The other factor was that there was reported to be tremendous solidarity with unions up and down the coast. We've seen this in other global disruptions. Cargo that was overtly diverted from the west coast ports of Canada was threatened with facing a refusal by unions on the west coast or other unionized ports in the United States to move it. That entailed a risk to shippers as well. They couldn't divert with the certain outcome that their cargo would move.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

Thank you very much, Mr. Miao.

It's on to Mr. Savard-Tremblay for a minute and a half.

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

Has Transport Canada implemented, or is it planning to implement, access to data for all port authorities and other supply chain stakeholders, as recommended by the authorities?

[Christian Dea]

Yes.

Through initiatives that my colleague Mr. Dick chaired, we have worked with the sector to improve accessibility and information sharing to facilitate operational discussions or decisions, as well as to improve investment planning decision‑making and increase the sector's capacity and resilience.

That work has been under way with various port authorities for a number of years now, and we'll probably bring that work to a higher level of maturity over the next few years.

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

I'm going to thank you right away, because I only have 30 seconds left.

Does Transport Canada have a strategy to integrate new technologies into port infrastructure, such as the Internet of Things, artificial intelligence, and autonomous ships and vehicles, and for automating terminal facilities?

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

Give a brief answer if possible, sir.

[Robert Dick]

That's absolutely the sort of thing we are working with the port authorities on and encouraging them to do within the port ecosystems.

Very rapidly, the last major disruption at the port of Vancouver was in 1969.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

Thank you.

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

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

Thank you for providing that data. I was going to ask that myself.

I just wanted to make the point that this isn't a continual thing at the port of Vancouver per se. It happens in ports all over the world.

I also wanted to bring up that word. You talked about the “impact” that this had, that between labour disruptions there were impacts. To me, that sounds like a negative thing. I assume that you were talking about the adjustments the employers were making to labour situations, whether it was an increase in pay or better working conditions. Those would have an impact on the employer. They would obviously have beneficial impacts on the workers.

Is that what you were implying?

[Robert Dick]

In terms of ongoing impacts, I was speaking of the reputation.

I think the issue from the vantage point of Canada's trading and business partners has been on all disruptions to our supply chains, not just labour disruptions. The reality is that we've had blockades, the atmospheric river, wildfires and a series of other shocks to our supply chains that have affected the reliability of that flow of goods.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

Thank you very much, Mr. Dick.

We now have to go for a vote.

I want to thank the witnesses very much for being here. Our other panel of witnesses will come to the table.

I will suspend until following the vote.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

I'm calling the meeting back to order so that we can get the witnesses' testimony in.

Mr. Cannings is here. We were making sure that you were here.

Go ahead, Mr. Savard-Tremblay.

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

Madam Chair, with an open mike, could you inform us of the procedure for following up on the motion that I tabled and that was adopted at the last meeting, so that the committee is mandated to draft a letter?

What's the procedure? Will we be receiving a proposal for a letter shortly? How does that work?

[The Clerk of the Committee, Ms. Sophia Nickel]

The analysts have already started to draft a letter. As soon as it's ready and translated, it will come back to the committee.

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

May I make a suggestion? In order to avoid a lengthy debate on the content of the letter, let's stick to the facts set out in the motion.

[Offah Obale, Committee Researcher]

That's fine, Mr. Savard‑Tremblay.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

Go ahead, Mr. Sidhu.