Thank you very much for your invitation today and for giving us the opportunity to speak with you a little bit about what is happening in Montreal East.
The Montreal-East Industrial Association, or AIEM, currently comprises 13 companies located in east Montreal. This association was founded in 1960. On the slides, you will see that we began our work in the 1960s. We first dealt with air quality and then moved on to risk management and building relationships with the community.
Over the last few years, especially after recent events in the economic sector in Montreal East, we have focused our efforts on the economic aspect. There are really always three aspects to sustainable development. There is of course an economic aspect, a social one and an environmental one. Obviously, an association such as ours could not work if we did not think about the economic side of things.
I would like to draw your attention to one element. We could, of course, talk about numbers and contributions to the GDP. However, I would like to say a little bit about the close relationship between the companies that make up the AIEM. You can see from the slide that there are many arrows and links between the companies in Montreal East.
The next slide shows you how things evolved on our side. You can see the report that was published in 2003 entitled “Profil industriel”, or industrial profile. The Xs represents businesses that have unfortunately disappeared from Montreal East since that time. In 2010, when the Shell refinery decided to close, there was a reassessment of the situation. We saw that something was happening and that we should take a closer look. The message the AIEM received was that a number of things had already occurred in Montreal East and that not enough attention had been paid to them.
On this slide, it is interesting to note that, in the petrochemicals sector, there were really two significant streams in Quebec. One was the olefin stream, which means everything related to polyethylene and polypropylene. There was also the aromatics stream, related to the polyester chain, which still exists in Montreal East.
Unfortunately, Quebec lost its entire olefin sector when Pétromont and Basell closed down. Not only were they closed down, but they were also completely demolished. We no longer have these plants in Quebec.
What we have left is the aromatics stream, and we would like to draw your attention to it. You will see it on the next slide. There are four companies in Montreal East that are interconnected and that make up the only polyester chain in Canada. You will see the word “polyester” on tags on shirts, hockey jerseys and fleece. All of these fabrics are made of polyester. The chain you see on this slide is the only one of its kind in Canada. There are no others.
This chain is made up of four companies. It all starts with a refinery, because our feedstock comes from there. Para-Chem refines and manufactures paraxylene, which is sent to Cepsa which produces a white powder called PTA. This powder is sent to Selenis to be mixed with a glycol to produce an ester. This is then polymerized to produce polyester and plastic beans which, when stretched, can be made into thread and fabrics. When welded, they produce packaging material.
If you look at a bottle, you will see the number 1 on it. This indicates that it is made of PET. That is polyester. These molecules are made in Montreal East. This plastic is completely recyclable. When you put it in your recycling bin, you are giving it value. It is important to mention that.
Today we also have to talk about the supply issue. Someone mentioned the saying about the bear. Let's say that I am a refiner and that Dimitri is also a refiner. We are both being chased by a bear. I do not need to run faster than the bear; I just need to run faster than Dimitri. This is what is happening in North America. There probably will not be any new refineries, but others will close.
The next slide shows that many of the refineries in North America are already using oil from the west, which is cheaper. We hear about this every day. We are currently trying to have more options for where we get our feedstock, because even if you have the best plants in the world, your opportunities will be seriously compromised if you have no flexibility in your feedstock supply options.
To illustrate this, on the next slide, we show that since the Shell refinery closed in Montreal East, other refineries also closed. Rationalization continues.
I would like to add an extremely important point. Although the refineries have been shut down in the east, a lot of equipment and products that can supply the markets do come into the port of Montreal. We are convinced that we have leading-edge facilities and that we are able to produce products well. As long as we are the ones who will be using these products, we are better off producing them locally so that we can get some added value rather than turning to others, elsewhere in the world, to have them manufactured for us.
By having raw material options, we can safeguard the petrochemical cluster located in Montreal East, enabling us to contribute to Canada's GDP. This is more or less the message that we wanted to convey to you today.
Obviously, there are many challenges that need to be addressed. Indeed, this is not only about having access to raw materials. In a competitive market, if we do not have any raw material options, it would be very difficult to ensure the survival of the entire polyester chain.
Thank you very much.