International Trade committee  Thank you very much. First of all, David offers his regrets. He's been ill for the last couple of weeks. He had planned to be here until as late as last night, but, unfortunately, he just couldn't make it. He's asked me to read the following statement on his behalf. Let me begi

International Trade committee  Yes, sure. I can explain to you a little bit about our involvement. Again, when the SPP was being rolled out, there were discussions between us and various different departments of government; it wasn't just one. We weren't just dealing with customs; we were dealing with transpo

International Trade committee  You're absolutely right. The trucking industry isn't different from a lot of other Canadian industries in that it is primarily made up of small businesses. There are over 10,000 carriers in this country. There's a handful of large ones and a lot of very small ones. It's fundament

International Trade committee  Certainly. In terms of the process itself, this eManifest process in the U.S. has been under way for quite some time. A government industry advisory group called the Trade Support Network was struck in the United States. Representatives from all modes of transportation, as well

Industry committee  Thank you. I'll speak for a minute about cost. That is a really big concern for us. We have all these new programs that have been rolled out—supply chain, security programs, and advanced manifest programs to submit information electronically to customs authorities, and so forth

Transport committee  We don't have any particular problem with that. I certainly read what's in the bill, and it seems to me that those would only be issued in what appears to me to be very urgent and sensitive situations, and there would be a review process. So that's not an overriding concern that

Transport committee  If I could just add on to that, again, you asked the question about domestic clearances for truck drivers. For a driver who's going to be hauling goods domestically in Canada, I wouldn't suggest they subject themselves to the free and secure trade program security check, for the

Transport committee  As an association we've estimated that the carriers within our group employ about 150,000 people. There are about 260,000 to 270,000 commercial truck drivers in Canada, and the industry as a whole employs about 400,000 people.

Transport committee  First of all, as I think one of us has mentioned already, any Canadian truck driver who is hauling dangerous goods into the United States right now is already security cleared--that would be tens of thousands of drivers who are already security cleared. But there are going to be

Transport committee  Right, and those costs would be borne by the carriers and ultimately passed on through the supply chain.

Transport committee  Yes, I would suggest that. Again, for drivers who operate domestically, I don't think they should have to apply. But if they have been screened by the federal government for security reasons already, I don't think putting them through a second process is a good use of the governm

Transport committee  We have expressed concerns over the last number of years to U.S. Customs and Border Protection and the Canada Border Services Agency about the transparency of the review process on FAST cards. It's a very legitimate concern, and you're absolutely right to raise it. Unfortunately,

Transport committee  Certainly for other security programs that have been rolled out post-9/11, the expectation is always that the employer, the carrier in this case, provides that training to its employees. Again, our issue is not that there would be a requirement for training, but rather that if an

Transport committee  We're certainly aware, Mr. Kennedy, that those discussions are taking place. They have been taking place for a number of years now.

Transport committee  No, but despite that fact we still have multiple different types of clearances out there. I support them in doing that. We'd love to come up with a simplier system, but I'm not aware of any major leap forward that would get us to where we want to be.