International Trade committee  I'll simply say that uncertainty is a poison pill to investment in the country.

International Trade committee  Business needs to have the stability and the reliability in the supply chains. It's important to realize that.... Looking back, we obviously had our west coast port strike, which had a significant impact on our supply chains. Looking forward, there's the port of Montreal. This

International Trade committee  I think it's important to realize that our ports play a massive role in our export economy, but so do our airports and our bridges going down to the United States. Maybe I'm misunderstanding the question, but we need to make sure that we get our goods to market and we need to m

International Trade committee  Significantly—I think that's the simple answer. The projects that are being announced by the government are greatly needed. We have an infrastructure deficit in the country. More money going toward infrastructure from the private sector and from the government is all very posit

International Trade committee  It's a simple thing. It can't take us 10 years to build projects in the country. Figuring out that regulatory problem so that we can build the infrastructure that we need quickly so that.... Right now, we're looking at those near-term problems that are already taking place. We'

International Trade committee  Yes. From a western Canadian perspective, I think very much the issues that we're hearing are transportation, just being able to get goods to market reliably. There's natural resources, again, not only getting the resources but actually being able to get the permitting to start m

International Trade committee  I think, keeping it short, that I would just say leadership. I think that plays a massive piece. Take a look at the Asia-Pacific gateway strategy as an example. That brought together all levels of government, communities, provincial governments and indigenous populations in ide

International Trade committee  We need stable supply chains to get goods to market. When we look at what the Canada West Foundation...and we are very supportive of it. I'll stress that not only are we supportive of it, but we encourage premiers...who this summer actually mentioned that the federal government s

International Trade committee  I think, in reading Bill C-58, that it firmly tips the power in favour of one of the parties. Where do I get the piece? I'll cite the passage from the government's own consultation paper, which states, “The majority of these studies suggest that when a province prohibits replacem

International Trade committee  I think to answer the question I'll go into a bit more detail. We just can't have the one path to get goods to market. We have a big country. We have the ability to go east and west, and for that matter, as the climate starts to warm in the north, I think we should be exploring a

International Trade committee  While government isn't solely responsible for infrastructure investment, a federal commitment to major, strategic, long-term investments is key to building Canada’s trade infrastructure. The government's national trade corridors fund is a positive step forward. While it is suppo

International Trade committee  I think what we're looking for are tools that would bring parties together. We're really looking for the ability to force a deal or hold them to the table in advance of a work stoppage. The challenging question is that it's not really a one size-fits-all approach, but some option

International Trade committee  I think the word “essential” is always a tricky one as there's a legal meaning to it, especially when we're talking about an essential federal service. I would say, as a trading nation that relies on the movement of goods to and from Canada, yes, our ports are critical to being a

International Trade committee  That's a very critical question to be talking about, especially in this context. I'll make a counter-argument to the comment that there is a push of the thumb on the scale towards one side or another. I would say this is doing the exact same thing, and pushing it towards the one

International Trade committee  We started talking about the possibility of a work stoppage on Canada's west coast. I'll stress that it's important to mention the Port of Vancouver, but also the other ports that were affected during this. We raised this about seven months before the strike happened. I think w